A Tale of Interconnectedness
By Rachel Lord, Advocacy & Policy Director, AFPC
How do we improve food security in Alaska? What are the steps to move us to a more resilient and nourished future? Over the past few years, multiple stakeholder groups have published important and lengthy food security reports and recommendations trying to get at those questions with a statewide view. Other efforts capture local and regional assessments and implementation ideas. And we are all wary of reports that collect dust, and represent a box checked but not any meaningful change.
As AFPC developed policy priorities for 2024, we looked for recommendations that seemed achievable in the short-term, and/or had some momentum behind them. While working on advancing these priorities, the depth of interconnectedness has become increasingly apparent. We can think of a seine web - the need for flexibility and the impact that gaps or disconnects have on its overall structure and functioning. Net mending is a necessary skill, and you can’t fix holes without thoughtful and structural work.
One of the policy priorities we selected that sounded straightforward and reasonable was to “list the shellfish sanitation program as an essential service.” When I reached out to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) Environmental Health Laboratory, where shellfish are tested for our commercial harvesters, I wanted to learn about this opportunity to list the Shellfish Sanitation Program as an essential service. What I learned instead was an eye-opening lesson in just how interconnected the state programs are, and how futile the proposal would be to single out a single strand of that net as “essential.” Every strand, each knot in the web, is critical for supporting and growing our mariculture and agriculture industries.
We are seeing large investments in mariculture across Alaska’s coastline, and growing enthusiasm in this industry. This growth must be met with strategic public investment; this challenge is acknowledged in the ADEC FY25 budget book where the Department looks at key component challenges and states, “In the portion of FSS [Food Safety and Sanitation program] overseeing molluscan shellfish safety and sanitation, the program experienced a growing industry, increasing national requirements, and changes within the ocean environment that impact the safety of molluscan shellfish. It will be challenging to meet the growing demands as Alaska’s mariculture industry expands.”
In addition to the testing at the Environmental Health Lab, a successful mariculture industry also needs a fully staffed and responsive Shellfish Program within the Food Safety and Sanitation program at ADEC. Additional state and public programs that are critical to the success of the mariculture industry include those included in the Mariculture Task Force report from 2021: Alaska Department of Natural Resources: Division of Mining, Land, and Water, Division of Agriculture; Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Division of Insurance, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, University of Alaska, Alaska Sea Grant, and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. At nearly every link, it is imperative to ensure that substantial Tribal and public engagement happens. I’m probably missing something, but hopefully, this begins to paint a picture.
Similar to other successful industries in Alaska (fishing, oil, gas, tourism) - successful industry growth will depend on significant, strategic, and stable state investment. And like a seine web, there is an interconnected web of functioning state services that must be ready to meet the industry's needs for success. One of the projects AFPC will be working on over the coming months is identifying and sharing this web of state programs and services that touch our food systems. As we seek to strengthen Alaska’s food systems, we need to understand the web that underlies its foundation. A similar web exists (and overlaps!) for our agricultural industry - our produce, dairy, grain farmers, and our meat producers - and across the net that surrounds subsistence resources and access in Alaska. Not only are we better together, but when we want to grow and strengthen our food net we are dependent on each strand for success.
