Sustainable food sources for Alaskans (Palmer: co-ops, loans, houses)

[User 2]

I like the idea of creating a sustainable food source in Alaska for Alaskans.

We could have better food, we wouldn't pay more for it, (probably less because of the high cost of fuel for transportation), and we wouldn't be dependent on someone else's whims, or a break in the chain somewhere out of our control.

We should commit to building the greenhouses to grow our own produce, produce and provide storage for the rest of our basic food needs, and break free from being reliant on shipped in food from ever more concentrated corporate entities who now have too much control of our food and of our economy.



WalMart and Kroeger, etc.?, ...they can buy our surplus, we don't have to support them, (or the Chinese), ........instead they could just as well aid in supporting us.

We could, and we should, have total control over our basic needs, it's not logical to wait for some unknown date in future when we find we suddenly need to do for ourselves, .........we should start now......
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[Manmountain]

Understatement of the decade to say the least.

For it to happen it would have to be local free enterprise.


If Corp-AG gets involved or state or Fed Gov expect barely satisfactory results.

A few alaskan entrepreneurs would be the optimal arrangement. LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL and no genect. modified zombie food either.


Sure would go along way from the chemically treated contaminated shipping container delivery going on now.

I got $100,000!! lets start an AG coop. Anyone else ?

[Dusty Rhodes]

Not that familiar with Alaska foodcrops, know them well down here, as i understand it, root crops work best and members of the cabbage family. I also understand that with a greenhouse, tomatos, corn, peppers, beans and peas, squash, cucumbers, maybe even melons of one sort or another. To do this on a practical scale, the greenhouse should be removeable, have the soil prepared for seeding, then put the greenhouse up and let it warm the soil for a week or two. All of your daylight probably gives yall a longer effective growing season than I have down here. If you can keep the soil above 55 degrees, eight inches deep, for three months, you can grow most of the above crops. I'd be willing to ship yall some seeds just to see how it works, if it doesn't work out you're not out anything but time, well.... you may need 10-10-10 fertilizer, maybe not, do you have an agricultural agent up there? They test soil, part of their service, can tell you exactly what additives you may need. Probably too cold for composting.....don't know. Yall have loam as best I understand it, you may not need any additives, that's why the Ag agent comes in handy.

[Marty Van Diest]

Sounds good to me. Actually, some of the producers here in the Mat-Su are heading that way.

You might talk to Mark Rempel of Rempel Farms in Palmer. He is now selling most of his stuff at the Farmers Markets and has diversified quite a bit.

[User 2]

Originally Posted by Manmountain

For it to happen it would have to be local free enterprise.


If Corp-AG gets involved or state or Fed Gov expect barely satisfactory results.


I got $100,000!! lets start an AG coop. Anyone else ?

I agree that corporate agriculture, the state and the feds should be afforded limited participation, but there's really no reason to shut them out.

Any and all of those entities could contribute, they just shouldn't be allowed to control the process.

Personally, I think it's in the State of Alaska's best interests to provide all the assistance that may be asked of them. They could put up loans, loan guarantees, and provide technical support.

And rather than a co-op, I believe independent growers would be a better way to go. Most co-ops end up like most other 'group' efforts, the people working the hardest end up carrying those who don't wish to work as hard.

One might, however, co-op the needed storage facilities or in-state transport.
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[Metlakatla]

You can get all sorts of information on this from the Extension service in Palmer.

http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/

[User 2]

Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes

Not that familiar with Alaska foodcrops, know them well down here, as i understand it, root crops work best and members of the cabbage family. I also understand that with a greenhouse, tomatos, corn, peppers, beans and peas, squash, cucumbers, maybe even melons of one sort or another. To do this on a practical scale, the greenhouse should be removeable, have the soil prepared for seeding, then put the greenhouse up and let it warm the soil for a week or two. All of your daylight probably gives yall a longer effective growing season than I have down here. If you can keep the soil above 55 degrees, eight inches deep, for three months, you can grow most of the above crops. I'd be willing to ship yall some seeds just to see how it works, if it doesn't work out you're not out anything but time, well.... you may need 10-10-10 fertilizer, maybe not, do you have an agricultural agent up there? They test soil, part of their service, can tell you exactly what additives you may need. Probably too cold for composting.....don't know. Yall have loam as best I understand it, you may not need any additives, that's why the Ag agent comes in handy.

Respectfully, dusty

We have been growing food both in and out of greenhouses for a very long time here.

As far as what we can grow, I see no limit to what we can grow in a greenhouse environment. I know of one greenhouse where successfully producing grapes, banana trees, and the like have been continually harvested for many years.

Besides conventional greenhouse operations, there are straight hydroponic operations also. One very successful hydroponic farm here has long produced some of the best tomatoes available in our markets.

Soil science and an extensive agricultural extension service are not things we are unaware of, nor are we unsophisticated as far as being capable of successfully managing the tasks that would need to be undertaken.

If the growers intend to make their operations truly sustainable, 'additives' would be limited to organics, as would the produced product be organic.

Soil depletion and waste runoff obviously wouldn't be in our best interests.

We can see what corporate agriculture has wrought elsewhere, there isn't a need for us to fall for the same misbegotten policies.
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[Metlakatla]

Most of these publications are free:

http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/catalog.xml

[User 2]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

Sounds good to me. Actually, some of the producers here in the Mat-Su are heading that way.

You might talk to Mark Rempel of Rempel Farms in Palmer. He is now selling most of his stuff at the Farmers Markets and has diversified quite a bit.

Thanks Marty,

I know there are some people working in the valley to create a resurgence of scale in the farming still left there. There are some great things going on there again.

We should all be supportive of preserving what the valley farms have contributed and work to ensure that land is protected for what it can again provide.
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[Metlakatla]

About subsistence:

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