GFC

Tom Gemmell, Marine Conservation Alliance

Fish Calendar 2010 

Jan 26-29.  IPHC Annual Meeting, Seattle

Jan 26-31.  BOF AYK Finfish, Anchorage Proposals  Agenda
Roadmap  Dept. Comments

The Farm Service Agency has been keeping us up to date with the progress of the Geographically Disadvanaged Farmer program.   As you may remember, it was included in the 2008 Farm Bill as a result of hard work and persistence done by our federal representatives.     The program recognizes that farmers and ranchers in Hawaii and Alaska are at a competitive disadvantage due to transportation costs for inputs and outputs.  The original 2003 report demonstrating this inequity is attached and the basis for the 2008 additional.     The Farm Bill now provides a mechanism to compensate for geographically disadvantaged farmers and ranchers by off-setting some in-bound and out-bound transportation costs.

The bar is definitely being raised at the Farm Service Agency.    While it has been a staple of Alaska's Agricultural industry, it is lesser known outside of their traditional farm family constituents.   As the new Alaska Director of the Farm Service Agency, Danny Consenstein is working hard to raise the access for more Alaskans, but not just any Alaskans.

Tom Gemmell, Marine Conservation Alliance

Table of Contents

FEDERAL
1.      AFSC
2.      NMFMC Items for February Meeting
3.      Sea Lion versus Octopus
4.      Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet terminates commercial fishing vessel for safety violations (1/14)
5.      Feds declare fisheries disaster for Yukon kings (1/15)
6.      Secretary Locke discusses salmon, transportation, census (1/22)
7.      Disaster declaration suggests bycatch decision will stand (1/22)
8.      Ninth Circuit Opinion.  FISHERMEN'S FINEST INC. v. LOCKE (1/19)
9.      Bodies found in Alaska crash; co-pilot from Seattle area (1/24)
10.  Opinion.  Lawsuit sure to follow moratorium (1/20)
11.  USCG Steps Up Inspections in Advance of Crab Fisheries (KMXT Audio) (1/19)
12.  NOAA head announces she will takes steps to improve fisheries law enforcement (1/21)

Continued By Linking On Article Title (Above)

You may recognize the brand - Permafrost Vodka.  It was one of the biggest hits at Global Food Alaska 2009 and continues to roll out new ultra premium product and marketing materials.     Recently, the company changed their name from Glacier Creek Distillery to Alaska Distillery and along with that made some other announcements. 

Where does your food come from?    What are the ingredients?   How many handled the product between harvest and your home?    The Pacific Culinary Studio in Everett Washington features an especially interesting Guest Chef program in February that gets right down to it.     Shelly Muzzall and her daughter Roshell, owners of 3 Sisters Cattle Company, will be Guest Chef's preparing their own local grass fed beef.  During the evening they will introduce their farm, prepare meals and give their 5th generation farm to fork story. 

Tonia Winkler is selling happiness.    How?  She prepares and sells her specialty biscotti and sees the smiles after people take their first bite.

A good friend recently reminded me that having an occasional bite of chocolate or a sweet improves attitudes - a good option to offset the winter chills compounded with lack of daylight.    With all of the exercise ads and diet commercials of late, I suppose the "happiness factor" had skipped my mind.    Now, Tonia reminds us she is selling happiness.      Who couldn't use a little or a lot of that?   And what about for your Valentine?     How about a little happiness for those you love?      Tonia's Biscotti has a continually growing list of products and a growing list of distribution locations.   

Although we're many months away from the first of Alaska's wild salmon runs, it is not too early to source product that meets your specifications.    Now is definitely the time for conversations with your suppliers about your  2010 buying requirements.   Now is the time to ask questions and be clear about your supply chain specifications - providing you the opportunity to lock down your transportation and handling.

As suppliers provide updates on their 2010 products, we will post them here and in Collaborative INSIGHTS.  But let's start by unveiling of Copper River harvester, Bill Webber's "hot off the presses" new label.

Last summer, SeaShare sent its first shipment of seafood to the Food Bank of Alaska.     The first shipment consisted of 25,000 pounds of canned salmon.    The second shipment consisted of 30,000 pounds of silver salmon, rapidly followed last month by two trailer loads of nearly 63,000 pounds of canned salmon. 

This was a spectacular supply chain collaboration with kudos going to many, but it certainly never would have happened without the quiet stewardship of Reggie Buchanan, Food Resources Manager, Food Bank Of Alaska and Jim Harman, Executive Director of SeaShare.

Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation (HFBF) members have gotten a boost from the latest collaboration with Aloha Air Cargo for a special air freight discount program.     The discount provide HFBF members up to 35% off of Aloha Air Cargo freighter service when shipping  locally grown or ‘Made in Hawaii’ packaged products.

With the U.S. Congress back in session, there is hope that work on food safety legislation will soon pick up steam.  One of the issues that will be part of that discussion is "traceability."  In the food safety context, the term is meant to refer to the ability to track specific food within the chain of distribution, preferably from "farm to fork."

Entire Article At Food Safety News Here

Seeing red in 2009?   So was Carol Kenley, but for a very good reason.  With great enthusiasm,  "Let's talk rhubarb", says Carol.    The rhubarb plant is plentiful in Alaska and more recently harvesters, like Carol are collaborating on ways to better utilize it for cutting edge health and nutritional applications.   Carol is fortified by the spirit of her family's tradition - in fact they were Alaska's 2009 Farm Family.     

Feeling a bit achy?  Painful muscles?   How about fatigued to the point that it is virtually impossible to recharge your batteries?   

These were some of the symptoms that Janell Farnsworth experienced while serving in the National Guard in Afghanistan.      She knew it couldn't be her age or physical condition.    She had been a runner and was conditioned to running in the guard.  She was in her mid-30's and the symptoms seemed off of what should be normal for her age.

By way of talking to others with celiac disease, she raised the question about the possibility with physicians and was diagnosed nearly 2 years ago.  Now, a healthier and happier Janelle makes taking the path to a gluten-free life... a whole lot easier.

America’s Heartland is the only nationally-broadcast weekly program on agriculture.  If you're interested in reading up on competitors, collaborators or generally learning more about the food supply chain across America,  check it out and see the energy behind this seasons production. 

Let's not forget the stories America's Heartland produced right here in Alaska during Season 2.    Or the story produced during Season 3.

One of their latest highlights the changing tastes of consumers traveling via air, rail and cruise and how these commercial buyers are changing out their supply chains.

The International Congress on Seafood  Technology will held in Anchorage, Alaska, May 10 - 13, 2010.  The main objective of this Congress is to review the best available knowledge in the main technological fields relating to seafood processing, shelf life extension and distribution.  

Building on the success of the 1^st Congress in 2008, the 2010 Congress will address state-of-the-art information regarding the handling, processing, preservation, storage and transportation of seafood. Fisheries and aquaculture, as a food production industry, have been advancing rapidly over the last decades. Fish has a positive health image as food, and is now the most internationally traded protein food product. Significant developments in processing technology have allowed new possibilities for more value-added products, longer shelf life, and more secure distribution of seafood.

The Tilapia Aquaculture Dialogue (TAD) just released its global standards for the tilapia aquaculture industry.

Missed this meeting?   Catch up on the program remarks and presentationsl below.

AGENDA, Improving Product Tracing of Foods: More Rapid Outbreak Response

Opening remarks by Jerold Mande, Deputy Under Secretary For Food Safety, FDA

FDA/FSIS joint public meeting on product tracing. December 9-10, 2009
Washington, DC

Experts listed below with panel presentations linkage.

There has been a global paradigm shift this year.  If you don't feel it - don't read on.  

One of those paradigm shifts has occurred in local food sourcing.   In 2009, the local food movement has more traction then ever with its demonstrated energy and carbon emissions savings, as well as the direct relationship to its value in creating sustainable communities. The value proposition of going local has been made to commercial buyers like Whole Foods and Walmart who quantified the savings and changed out their entire supply chain.   The USDA has created programs and policies to support a breadth of national efforts.     In fact, The National Restaurant Association has just recently published results from its Top List of Hottest Menu Trends for 2010  That survey of more than 1,800 American Culinary Federation member chefs shows locally produced food and beverages in the top five of menu trends.  Local food sourcing has become mainstream.

I've always felt that the link to local was, however, missing something.     I couldn't put my finger on it, until late last summer.

You know how we love collaborations along the supply chain.   

Well here is one of the latest.    It is timely, too.

In October, the Alaska Federation of Natives met in Anchorage for their annual conference.   One of the keynote speakers, Elizabeth Hensley (daughter of Willie Hensley) passionately urged everyone in the audience to tell their stories of culture, language and traditions.   It was insightful to watch a father/daughter team present a shared keynote from the perspective of two distinct generations, living through somewhat different histories of Alaska.    They were fully engaged in sharing their stories, as was much of the theme of this year's conference.

Within a few days, we received an announcement from the people at Kwik'Pak Fisheries (Yukon) that they were partnering with a company that helps share the stories of traditions as they relate to food.  (Maybe they heard Elizabeth's pleas and acted without hesitation.)

What are your thoughts?  Let them be heard. There is no better time then now to get your voice heard as the U.S. Congress considers the pending US Food Safety Law. (Reuters, November 18th - US Food Safety Likely To Get Overhaul In 2010)

We've run a lot of stories on new software systems and traceability programs over the past 5 years.  We thought it timely to to read an opinion piece that challenges the need for more regulation and technology. 

Dave Carter is the Executive Director of the National Bison Association and he maintains a small herd of buffalo in Colorado.  He is also principal of Crystal Springs Consulting.