Or....not!
Coming as no surprise whatsoever to the interested observer, the small producer, the hobby farmer, the homesteader, and the easily amused.......
Arthur Keyes beat out Tony Knowle's son for the Director of Agriculture position. Hope he enjoys that $121,000 a year job...while somehow still running all the things he bragged about doing in his letter of interest. Being Ben VanderWeele's son-in-law was no impediment *cough cough*
Also coming as no surprise, is the formation of a brand new baby LLC, known as "Denali Meat Company". The four individuals named have equal partnership percentages, but only one has true retail business experience-that would be Mr. Burris, current owner of Mat Valley Meats here in the Mat Su. The rest are farmers, including, (ironically) one Todd Pettit, another "anointed by marriage" farm royalty member. Todd is the guy who publicly stated several times that he had no interest in the MMM&S plant whatever. He didn't use it, didn't plan on it, but felt it was important to all farming. You'll find Todd listed as a partner, although what part of the new venture he's going to help with is unclear. Terry Van Whye is listed too, he is a large pork producer up the Glenn Highway, with plans to expand. The final member is an unknown, perhaps he is the money man? And lest you think all these twisted ties are coincidental, it comes to light that the attorney for the partnership is none other than former Alaska Governor Sean Parnell. Yes, really.
Seemingly, Denali Meat Company appeared at the BAC meeting yesterday. They hogged the microphone (not allowing others their three minutes) and at least once, attempted to move their conversation into "executive session". That's illegal, if you don't have loan matters to discuss-just so you know. And to our knowledge, Denali Meat does not yet have a loan with the ARLF. Keep in mind they were just formed January 5th, and got their business license on February 11th. It's assumed they'll submit a proposal to the BAC to take over MMM&S. Of course, they aren't smart enough to go for a five year lease (it takes about five years to establish a small business, say the experts) so they're asking for a single year. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that MMM&S will end up back on the cutting board at BAC/Div. of Ag before long.
And just where does that leave the small producer?
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