Beyond the Last Mile: Overcoming Challenges to Getting Fresh Vegetables to Rural Alaska
by Colin Peacock, Regional Food Business Center Co-Director
As September rolls in and we observe Hunger Awareness Month, it's a fitting time to spotlight the unique challenges rural Alaskan communities face when it comes to getting fresh veggies on their plates.
For many Alaskans, fresh vegetables are a luxury. In Alaska, the journey to a healthy plate often starts with overcoming an obstacle course of immense distances, extreme weather, and limitations in food storage infrastructure. In addition to these hurdles, the lack of fresh produce in rural Alaska has profound implications for the health and well-being of residents. Limited access to essential nutrients contributes to a higher prevalence of diet-related diseases. This creates a stark disparity in nutritional outcomes between urban communities and those living either at the end of or entirely off the road system. To learn more, the Alaska Food Policy Council sat down with Mike Jones, Research Assistant Professor of Applied Economics at the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) to get a better understanding of what the challenges are and what solutions we might be able to develop so that all Alaskans can have access to fresh, nutritional vegetables.
Dr. Jones starts by explaining the challenges we face, the biggest of which is transportation. "Once things are arriving in Anchorage, they already have quite a few days on them, somewhere between four and seven days, depending on where it was picked and whatever preceded it." It can even be more when you add on a week or two of barge and potential unrefrigerated air transit moving to rural hubs, awaiting transfer, and then out to remote villages. Product freshness can be highly questionable at this point, as the shipment via barge, plane, and conventional shipping has inevitably left it battered, bruised, and with a short shelf life.
One way of reducing the time it takes to get produce to rural Alaska is to transport it by air. It’s the simplest option in terms of speed, but the highest in cost and often unreliable. Jones explained, "Aviation transportation appears to be the most important form of transportation. We have a lot of multimodal transport networks in Alaska. We barge a lot of stuff when we can; it's significantly cheaper." And while we know that the Alaska Marine Highway System’s ferries are crucial for locally produced food shipments, air travel still remains the best option with the major caveat that bad weather can delay flights, and smaller airports often lack the necessary cold storage, leading to spoilage.
"It does seem like we're going to find a lower volume of available refrigerative cold storage than the throughput merits," Jones added. "Improving the cold chain for food storage has been talked about a lot and was amplified with the Food Strategy Task Force. The final report recommends supporting the expansion of chill/freeze spaces at hub airports through a model that promotes cost-effective ease of use by regional carriers to increase fresh food preservation transiting through hubs.”
"Loading and unloading of a plane [also] matters… you spend two hours loading a plane at 20 below, and ice crystals form, and then it's just, it's just nothing." Bush carriers are often where the food sits longer and while Jones’ full cold storage audit is not yet complete, he expects to find that bush carriers are less capitalized and do not have the capacity to build out the cold storage that is required to keep the varying fresh produce at their desired temps.
While these challenges can seem overwhelming, there are still opportunities and solutions.
What steps can we take to improve our transportation system to improve veggie access in rural Alaska?
Better weather infrastructure and more reliable flights can make a huge difference. Jones said, “If pilots can fly safer, they can fly more consistently, … then that speeds up and lubricates the wheels of the supply chain." This means perishable goods like vegetables could reach rural communities faster and fresher.
“Localized food production could reduce reliance on long-distance transportation. Some options such as home gardens, high tunnel production, or more complex controlled environment agriculture techniques like hydroponics and vertical farming are frequently discussed. However, more complex systems also come with the large drawbacks of needing extensive and expensive support to maintain their infrastructure and training programs."
Expanding Cold Storage
Increasing cold storage capacity is potentially another key solution. "Increasing refrigerative cold storage would likely have a positive impact on the amount of fresh food surviving the journey to rural communities. I don't know about the benefit-cost ratio on that. It matters how much it costs to do that right versus the value of preserving it," Jones noted. More refrigeration for carriers in hub airports could help.
Legislative Support
The FAA Reauthorization Act might help too. Jones explained, "The honest answer is, they're still figuring that out. So the DOT is meeting with the FAA to understand what things mean. So there's what is written in the legislation, there's the FAA interpretation of the legislation, and then there's inferring the intent of Congress in passing the legislation. All of those things matter." He believes the reauthorization could provide more flexibility to move beyond the expensive, outdated weather station design, offering better solutions for rural Alaska's transportation needs.
Quantifying the Problem
The lack of access to fresh produce in rural Alaska has severe health consequences. The aforementioned studies have shown higher rates of diet-related diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, among residents in these areas. These health disparities place a significant burden on individuals, families, and the healthcare system. Measuring the economic impact of limited food access is crucial for advocating for increased support and resources. By measuring the costs associated with health disparities, transportation, and food assistance programs, policymakers can better understand the full scope of the issue and prioritize solutions.
Community-Based Approaches
Building a regional food economy requires innovations that are based on diversified, decentralized, relationship-based, and community-centered approaches. Education and awareness campaigns can also play a crucial role in empowering communities to make informed choices about food consumption and production to grow their local and regional food businesses.
Community-driven initiatives have the additional benefit of being a proven success. For example, the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service is directly involved in supporting rural communities through agricultural education and outreach programs. Their programs often focus on providing practical knowledge and skills to community members, which can lead to increased food security and self-reliance.
Transporting fresh vegetables to rural Alaska is challenging, but not impossible. By improving infrastructure, expanding storage capabilities, leveraging legislative support, and fostering community-based solutions, we can make significant strides in reducing food insecurity. As Dr. Mike Jones aptly put it, "Moving perishable goods to rural communities can only really be a good thing." And there is opportunity for improvement already happening as Jones explains, "There's been something like $125 million [in funding] that's going to be available over the next five years to expand weather-related aviation infrastructure to improve the safe flow of air traffic. That's a lot of money. You can do a lot with that amount of money.”
Investing in smarter solutions and exploring new ways to get fresh vegetables to rural communities is a game-changer in the fight against hunger. By improving transportation, expanding options for cold storage, and even growing produce locally, we can make a real difference.