The Alaskan economy relies greatly on mass transportation. With food in particular, much is shipped in from somewhere in the lower 48. However, there is a rising interest in Alaska agriculture and the USDA has announced more support for new farmers. KDLG’s Chase Cavanaugh has more.
The United States Department of Agriculture has announced several avenues of support for new farmers. In particular, several passages in the 2014 farm bill are geared to helping new farmers, as well as a website.
Danny Consenstein is the State executive director for the USDA Farm Services Agency. He says a wide variety of Alaskans are showing an interest in agriculture.
“It everything from vets to people in rural villages who are looking at what’s in the stores and a price of a head of lettuce and thinking, “man, I can do that.””
Projects range from small vegetable gardens to subsistence fields and larger commercial farms. No matter the size, Consenstein says all see economic opportunity.
“There’s just more and more people looking at Alaska and realizing 95% of the food we eat is coming up on a plane or a barge or a truck and that there’s more and more economic opportunities for people to make some money by producing more of our own food in Alaska. This website is a great too for people like that who are just starting to think about business opportunities in Alaska.”
He also says contrary to expectations, a surprising amount of things can grow in Alaska, including grains and vegetables such as kale.
“Almost anything except the real warm warm warm weather crops. We don’t do that well outdoors with something like tomatoes and cucumbers, but boy, you can really grow ‘em indoors. Just had a fresh cucumber picked off the vine in Tolmer yesterday and it was delicious.”
The website is organized into categories that a new farmer would find useful, such as getting started, gaining access to land, and managing agricultural risk. Constenstein says some sections are focused on information, while others show different programs offered by USDA, such as microloans.
“If you go to a bank and try to get a loan for a new farm in Alaska, most banks will kinda look at you like “no, we don’t do that.” There are loan programs through USDA to try to fill that gap and particularly for beginning farmers.”
Supplementing the website are provisions in the 2014 farm bill. One example is increased payments to new farmers for emergency assistance if they are raising livestock, fish, or honeybees. Another is include premium adjustments for crop insurance programs.
“The premiums for those insurance programs are going to be reduced for the beginning farmers, recognizing that they don’t have the kind of funds or finances that a long-term farmer might have, just getting into the business, trying to remove some of the barriers for people to get into this business.”
The site and provisions are meant to be used nationwide, but Consenstein hopes it will be of particular use to any Alaskans considering agriculture. The website is accessible at usda.gov/newfarmers.