Alaska Ag is dying.
It's a simple list of circumstance, coupled with policy and sprinkled with budget constraints, stirred together with modern culture and bureaucratic bumbling, completed with blindfold on.
On the federal level, the government influence extends into every facet of food production. If you have the passion, the will and desire, and the fortitude to produce food, you can bet there is a three ring binder of regulations (created mostly by bureaucrats, mind you, but federal law nonetheless) covering the soils, the waters, the methods used to produce that food. You may need permits, have to submit extensive, complicated plans, record and report all activities-and be subject to visitation and confiscation and a whole host of other noxious intrusions to get your crop sold. If you chose to jump onto the organic wagon, that includes even more time, effort, and yes....money.
On the State of Alaska side, there are the budget cuts to come. This will bring to an end, many years of crop research, for one. And that matters, a lot. They're going to shut down Mt McKinley Meats too, the sole USDA approved processing facility in Southcentral Alaska. Animals are hauled 100s of miles to this plant, so that farmers and livestock producers can then resell the resulting meat and meat products, legally. (See above note about federal regulations-can't sell the meat without that stamp) So, locally produced meats will vanish from farm markets, restaurants, local grocery stores and butcher shops. So too, the farmers-hobbyists, ranchers, producers-will vanish. And so will the expensive and hard to procure breeding stock. When they go, the baseline impetus to grow hay and grain will diminish as well. Funny how one little thing, turns out to be the domino, isn't it? MMM has always operated in the red since operations were taken over by the State of Alaska. Primarily this is due, once again, to regulation(s) on both the state and federal side. No visionaries have ever been at the helm, to increase utility of waste product(s) for the local markets. Thus, for all the animals slaughtered there over the preceding decades, not one bag or box of local bone or blood meal can be found.
The current director of the Division of Agriculture must have made an impression somehow, with prior Commissioner of Natural Resources, one Tom Irwin. Irwin has since left for greener pastures, but his legacy shines on in Franci Havemeister, whose less than stellar resume' includes this entry (from Ballotpedia.org) :
Before becoming director, Havemeister worked as a real estate agent, a case processor for the state of Alaska, and served as children's education director at her local church.[3]
Really, is *that* the best the state could do, to manage a 2.5 million dollar budget? And to cough up over $120,000 for the position to boot? Who hasn't been a realtor, or taught Sunday school? Prior state government works qualifies a person to run a for profit business, since when? Why, since 2007, that's how long. In fact, it's ironic that her salary could nearly pay for MMM's long standing operating losses. If it wasn't so descriptive of how the state does anything, it would be laughable. Instead, it's a pathetic indictment.
The capacity of the plant is much greater than is currently utilized, which creates a backlog of animals awaiting processing. Kill days are just twice a week with a limited number allowed to be processed, and they're closed one day a week as well. We're told this is a cost saving measure-but it costs their customers (Alaskans) instead. When this occurs, farmers and ranchers and homesteaders must wait extra months for a slot on the schedule. This means that they must feed them much longer-as long as six months in some years...which translates into a much higher cost due to added feed consumption.
The argument that the plant is only needed to sell locally grown meats commercially is not entirely accurate. A great many hobby and small farmers, intent on raising their own food, rely upon the service provided by MMM. They do not have the skills, facility, or confidence to handle their livestock themselves, never mind knowledge or equipment. More and more people are attempting to grow their own wholesome meats, and this movement continues to grow every year. In fact, there are two other USDA approved plants-and both are too far away from Southcentral for customers to reach. One of those (we've heard never used) is stranded in the Bush, another expensive boondoggle. Are there any plans to enable Alaskans to continue to have a local processing source? Well, no, actually. There is a committee looking into it (ahem) and the usual solution will be presented: Privatize. Whereupon it will go broke (as it has before) and we're right back where we started, three years down the road.
It goes broke because the state and feds, will not get out of the way of running a profitable business. It will continue to be buried in a mind numbing sea of red tape, regulations and "no you can't" policies and thus, destined for failure. Several very skilled folks have floated the idea of a "mobile slaughter" business, but the requirements remain the same for mobile, as they do stationary. And again, too expensive to be profitable for anyone to attempt to build one. Another irony: The state currently uses inmates from the correctional system, for their labor pool. In this way, they keep costs down, and provide the inmate with a new life skill....which they then cannot use because there are too many skilled butchers looking for work as it is. Just one of the unintended consequences of feel good policies, not practical ones. And any time a person dares to proffer any sort of solution, they are drowned out in a chorus of "You can't do that, it doesn't meet this (or that) regulation, we've always done it this way" and so on. A resounding, discouraging chorus, and the real drowning victims here are the residents of the state.........who aren't going to "got beef" for much longer.
This just in: Rumor has that a certain person on the committee supposedly working to find a solution to the perpetually plagued plant, has a back up plan. Indeed, his own plan, for another USDA plant. A private plant, not state owned. Methinks he is playing both ends against the middle here, and looking to come out on top. It's a win-win-win......better odds than the ill equipped director has going, for sure!
The current director of the Division of Agriculture must have made an impression somehow, with prior Commissioner of Natural Resources, one Tom Irwin. Irwin has since left for greener pastures, but his legacy shines on in Franci Havemeister, whose less than stellar resume' includes this entry (from Ballotpedia.org) :
Before becoming director, Havemeister worked as a real estate agent, a case processor for the state of Alaska, and served as children's education director at her local church.[3]
Really, is *that* the best the state could do, to manage a 2.5 million dollar budget? And to cough up over $120,000 for the position to boot? Who hasn't been a realtor, or taught Sunday school? Prior state government works qualifies a person to run a for profit business, since when? Why, since 2007, that's how long. In fact, it's ironic that her salary could nearly pay for MMM's long standing operating losses. If it wasn't so descriptive of how the state does anything, it would be laughable. Instead, it's a pathetic indictment.
The capacity of the plant is much greater than is currently utilized, which creates a backlog of animals awaiting processing. Kill days are just twice a week with a limited number allowed to be processed, and they're closed one day a week as well. We're told this is a cost saving measure-but it costs their customers (Alaskans) instead. When this occurs, farmers and ranchers and homesteaders must wait extra months for a slot on the schedule. This means that they must feed them much longer-as long as six months in some years...which translates into a much higher cost due to added feed consumption.
The argument that the plant is only needed to sell locally grown meats commercially is not entirely accurate. A great many hobby and small farmers, intent on raising their own food, rely upon the service provided by MMM. They do not have the skills, facility, or confidence to handle their livestock themselves, never mind knowledge or equipment. More and more people are attempting to grow their own wholesome meats, and this movement continues to grow every year. In fact, there are two other USDA approved plants-and both are too far away from Southcentral for customers to reach. One of those (we've heard never used) is stranded in the Bush, another expensive boondoggle. Are there any plans to enable Alaskans to continue to have a local processing source? Well, no, actually. There is a committee looking into it (ahem) and the usual solution will be presented: Privatize. Whereupon it will go broke (as it has before) and we're right back where we started, three years down the road.
It goes broke because the state and feds, will not get out of the way of running a profitable business. It will continue to be buried in a mind numbing sea of red tape, regulations and "no you can't" policies and thus, destined for failure. Several very skilled folks have floated the idea of a "mobile slaughter" business, but the requirements remain the same for mobile, as they do stationary. And again, too expensive to be profitable for anyone to attempt to build one. Another irony: The state currently uses inmates from the correctional system, for their labor pool. In this way, they keep costs down, and provide the inmate with a new life skill....which they then cannot use because there are too many skilled butchers looking for work as it is. Just one of the unintended consequences of feel good policies, not practical ones. And any time a person dares to proffer any sort of solution, they are drowned out in a chorus of "You can't do that, it doesn't meet this (or that) regulation, we've always done it this way" and so on. A resounding, discouraging chorus, and the real drowning victims here are the residents of the state.........who aren't going to "got beef" for much longer.
This just in: Rumor has that a certain person on the committee supposedly working to find a solution to the perpetually plagued plant, has a back up plan. Indeed, his own plan, for another USDA plant. A private plant, not state owned. Methinks he is playing both ends against the middle here, and looking to come out on top. It's a win-win-win......better odds than the ill equipped director has going, for sure!
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