Well, here she is, a brand new year.
What will the coming year bring for Alaskan agriculture?
If the past is our guide, we know what there won't be.
There won't be a land rush to turn muskeg, black spruce, dead birch and thickets of alders into growing food for Alaskans. Because politics and statute take precedence over the state's responsibilities (if any) to provide opportunity to develop a new resource.
There won't be loans for entrepreneurs whose expertise falls outside the confines of row after row of crops whose markets are already established. There won't be money for processing facilities, creating pathways for the true "farm to market" infrastructure so desperately needed.
There won't be an explosion of greenhouses, or gardens, or raised beds, popping up like a long dormant seed brought to life, across Alaskan back yards and homesteads.
There won't be an abrupt return to small dairies, cattle producers, or flocks of sheep and goats. Having weathered decades of no support from the Division of Agriculture, livestock will continue to limp along, hamstrung by ignorance and incompetence.
There won't be a unified "call to grow food" since one has never taken root, not within the poisoned atmosphere that is the Division. They have salted the ground so thoroughly, that new ventures resolve and if fully committed, will eventually do it sans their nod of approval.
There won't be a handy encyclopedia of Alaska agriculture, because there exist dozens of programs and groups, both federal and state, that comprise the wealth of knowledge garnered over decades of study after study, program after program, experiment after experiment. Alaskans are expected to stumble around long enough to become discouraged, before finding the information they seek on food production. Thanks to entrenched bureaucracy, this will never be corrected.
Yeah, there are a lot of things that won't be.
Given enough time, ag itself might become one of them.
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