If the cupboards went bare: Are we prepared for a food security emergency?
On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 22, two cargo ships, the Horizon Anchorage and the North Star, navigated through moderate Cook Inlet ice to dock at the Port of Anchorage.
As is typical, the ships were unaccompanied by icebreakers. (Although there's usually ice in the Cook Inlet during winter, the copious silt makes it especially brittle.) Skies were overcast, and conditions were calm. The Alaska Earthquake Information Center recorded no significant seismic events that day.
The ships docked one behind the other with their bows pointing south. Soon after they had been securely moored, three cranes reached out over the Horizon Anchorage and began plucking containers off its deck. Down the quay, three immense doors opened in the side of the North Star, and onshore three huge mechanical gangplanks reached out toward the openings like the legs of a hatching insect. A slow parade of trucks then drove over the gangplanks, straight into the belly of the North Star, which has decks that spiral like the floors of a parking garage. The trucks hitched to cargo containers on trailers, then drove them back over the gangplanks, into Alaska.
The ships were massive (both well over 600 feet long), the trucks were many, and the containers (mostly gray, but some blue and red) seemed endless. It was an altogether impressive spectacle, but there was also nothing out of the ordinary about it-the same thing happens, in the same place, two days a week, year round.
It's in exactly this manner-to a large extent on these same ships-that the overwhelming majority of the food Alaskans buy enters the state.
As a result, Alaska's growing population is hugely dependent on shipping. By the port's own estimates, 90 percent of not just food, but all "merchandise goods" for 85 percent of Alaska's populated areas enters through its facilities.
But what if this system stopped working? What if, for some reason, the ships didn't come?
That's a possibility Bryce Wrigley thinks about a lot. A lifelong farmer, in 1983 Wrigley moved with his family from Burley, Idaho to Delta Junction. Today the Wrigleys farm 1,700 acres in Delta, growing mostly barley, wheat, and peas. At home, Wrigley is surrounded by food, but he's also painfully aware of the gap between the amount of food Alaska farmers produce and what the state needs to feed itself.
Alaska Fish And Game Regulations - News
Data is gathered for rainfall at the mine site and vegetation, fish and wildlife studies are performed. DNR then looks at the mining reclamation plan to start making an informed decision about the impacts, according to Kirkham.
The Alaska Earthquake Information Center recorded no significant seismic events that day. The ships docked one behind the other with their bows pointing south. Soon after they had been securely moored, three cranes reached out over the Horizon
Earlier this month, Alaska Fish & Game Division of Wildlife Conservation director Corey Rossi resigned under allegations that he systematically falsified bear hunting records and violated guiding regulations shortly before being appointed to the agency
1, Alaska fishing guide Ray Blodgett was found guilty of violating fishing rules when he took a group of people fishing in one of the tributaries of the Talkeetna River. Despite the conviction, Blodgett claims he is guilty of nothing more than making a
Fairbanks committee chairman Terry Marquette said the compromises negotiated with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in a meeting last weekend addressed the concerns of several members who were undecided when it came to reauthorizing the hunts,