Good afternoon. I'd like to call this meeting and the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee to order in the time is 133 p.m.
We're in belts room 105 of the Thomas Stewart building in
the nation's most beautiful capital city of Juneau, Alaska today is Wednesday February 11th
2026 members present are
Senator great Jackson
Senator Dunbar and myself, Senator Bjorkman.
Senator Merrick is at finance and Senator Yunt is excused for today.
Let the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business.
Welcome everyone to Senate Labor and Commerce.
I would like you to please turn off or silence your cell phones and
join me in extending a warm Senate labor and commerce.
Welcome to our recording secretary, Carrie Tupoe and our LAO moderator, Susan Quigley.
Today, the committee will take a break from hearing legislation and instead we will hear
all about Alaska's agricultural industry.
We have invited representatives from the Alaska Farm Bureau, The Alaska Farland Trust as well.
We also have other invited testifiers who will provide us with testimony about farming
across the state as a representative from The Division of Mining Land and Water with
the Department of Natural Resources.
with the Alaska Farm Bureau.
And joining her at the table, Margaret is my support.
Margaret adds it.
Very good.
Ms. Seitz, Ms Addson, please put your name on the record
and your affiliation and begin your presentation.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
For the Record, my name is Amy Seits.
I'm the Policy Director for the Alaska Farm bureau.
And as I also wanted to point out,
I am a third-generation farmer.
my family's still farming on our my grandparents homestead in Saldatna. So I'm also a farmer as
well as focusing on policy issues. I am joined today by Margaret Azet which you'll she'll introduce
herself here in a bit from farmland trust as well. As we have three of our farmers from around the
state Emily Garrity, Tarned Coffee and Ken Hoffman who will also introduce themselves when they come
I'm hearing about a broad look at Alaska's agriculture industry with all of us here.
So I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today about Alaska agriculture
industry.
And we're going to be taking a big picture view of our potential, what we could be doing,
what it could mean for our communities and our state, and then also give a picture
all the different components needed to get us there.
And in this first slide, we're trying to demonstrate how
agriculture has a much bigger reach and impact on communities
and the economy than just what happens on the farm and sales of products.
And I think a lot of people don't think about that. You know, when we are
going around talking about needing to build our farming industry,
We get stuck in a
Single point of view of you know that just
Purchasing off the farm
Agriculture really has a broad reach we have fingers in all all aspects of the community and
many businesses
Benefit from a strong agriculture base and I'm sure in this slide you what we tried to think of
All the different areas. I am sure we missed something
But there are just to demonstrate the number of businesses and different industries that pop up
with a solid agriculture base
One of the things ma'am if I could interrupt for just a moment that people might not know
But I have recognized with your farm like a Shire Farms and so botan as well as other farms across
Alaska and the American West and maybe even the Midwest although I had not looked
to pursue my theory further.
But you all have a great weather station at your farm.
You're Davis Weather Link.
You can actually download the Davis weather link app
and you can check out the weather in so.net
right at Amy's Farm.
It's pretty cool.
I should try doing that.
Good job.
I just go outside and whatever the Weather's
doing at the moment is what.
So that's good to know.
Thank you.
Now you distracted me, Senator, so anyway, back to talking about the agriculture industry.
And I would say there are other impacts not necessarily associated with businesses but
different infrastructure needs such as weather stations.
I know that the number of weatherstations in Alaska impacts the ability to access disaster
relief programs for our farmers.
But so since our agriculture industry is is pretty underdeveloped still it may be hard to kind of envision
Big picture how much impact our farmers can have on a community and and really get that visual in Alaska
So I'm going to try to paint a picture and
In prepping for this
I thought about a lot of different places around the state.
You know, Margaret happened to be in the French best country
when we were talking about this.
And that is an area that has deeply rooted
in small, traditional family farms.
And they've built up a vibrant community.
We can look at areas in Italy, and Spain, New Zealand,
and see a really strong agriculture, really vibrant
communities based off of that.
A lot of people will say, you know, those are very different than Alaska, Alaska is cold,
we're Arctic, we have a short growing season, all of these other places are much more conducive
to agriculture.
So, I was looking at other Arctic climates in the circumpolar north and Norway is who
I'm going to try to relate to and hopefully paint a picture of potential.
They have, you know, part of their country is in the
circumpolar north, Arctic climates, a big difference.
Their country has really realized the value of farms
and the impact farms have on their communities.
They significantly support growth in
the agriculture and purposefully focus on that and value
having that farming base in
And because of that, they experience the numbers I looked up for every one family farmer.
They figure there are two to three other jobs in the community created.
They are producing almost 50% of their food needs for the country.
And meat, eggs, and dairy, are almost up to 100%.
That doesn't mean they don't import stuff.
The needs that the country has, they are getting pretty self-sufficient.
It does take investment and support, but because of the investment in support in the agriculture,
the economy benefits from the cluster effect, the secondary businesses that grow out because
of it.
examples or share a couple examples of the economic growth that started with
the agriculture industry. Agritourism has become very significant. There are a lot
of people traveling to Norway to experience the farm to table in an
Arctic climate and and see the high-tech greenhouses they've developed. You
the innovation around their agriculture industry.
So there are a lot of people traveling to that country,
spending dollars in hotels, restaurants,
shopping in the local shops in town.
So the dollar of the tourists is really expanding
into the community also.
And then supporting innovation,
and I didn't realize I was just recently,
this past summer.
starting to learn more about virtual fencing for our conference in November and virtual
fencing was actually started in Norway and that is now a kind of a high-tech solution
to controlling your livestock in you know not very friendly terrains or really large
solid fencing, you know, it's a way to manage, but the support from Norway for
their research and development, they have they invented this thing that is now
expanded across the world, other companies have their own virtual
fencing models. They also invented a machine that kills mildew on strawberries
It also harvests the strawberries, and it monitors the health of the plant while also
being lightweight so they don't compact the soil.
So there's a lot of innovation, a lotta development around manufacturing now because of these,
Yeah, but and that and I I'm not going to say the name of the town because I can't
pretend. I am sure I would not pronounce it correctly but one of
the towns in Norway because of research and development and having all of these high-tech
there is a town in Norway that is one of the top world leaders in manufacturing
agriculture equipment and that has brought a huge number of jobs with the
manufacturing and then there's the sales and you know so so the impact in those
communities is huge because they haven't at that agriculture base and so that's
a very high level look at what the agriculture industry can do even in an Arctic climate.
And so we'll move on to this next slide here. So
one of the questions is how do we get there? You know, how Alaska could benefit a lot from
to that point. And I think it's looking at the agriculture industry as a system as opposed
to individual little pieces. This slide kind of shows, and I'm sure we're missing some pieces,
and actually the markets could also go after processing and infrastructure, but this is to
to have farmers, there needs to be that business-structured
land access. They need to develop their markets, decide what they're going to
be producing, having whatever processing is needed, and then the end user to sell to.
If we don't start thinking of all the pieces and having a support system
We've done good at kind of focusing on special projects, and we'll put resources into building
a special project, but to really get the benefit, the full benefit that agriculture can bring,
And thank you, Senator Dunbar.
Thank you Mr. Chair.
I have a comment and then a question.
Okay.
So I had the pleasure, thanks to the United States Army, to spend some time in Eastern
Europe last year, about six months in Poland, very vibrant agricultural sector.
Also traveled through some of the countries like Norway, I didn't go to Norway but.
So my colleagues did, and it is interesting how there's just so much more farming there,
right?
And it's partly it because it has been there for literally thousands of years and they've
got that history there.
Part of it, is they have some other advantages with some of the infrastructure they built
and the have, it isn't something we can address here, but they also have national health insurance.
And think about how much easier it would be for our small farms if they didn't have to
family's health insurance or their employee's healthcare insurance and that was basically
subsidized by the cities where the tech and the finance are who are happy to pay for
national healthcare. That's not something we can resolve in the last state legislature,
but it's just it is a huge advantage that they have that our farmers and our fishermen and all
is the processing of infrastructure here.
I had a conversation with someone
at the Anchorage School District,
and of course they're a huge purchaser of food,
and they would love to purchase more local food.
But they've pointed out that like potatoes, for example,
and I might mess up this exact example.
But, they can't just take
raw potatoes, basically. They need the potatoes pre-processed in some ways before they can sort of
do the large scale industrial almost like cooking that they need to do. And they said that like
that kind of processing isn't really done in Alaska from like the middleman between the small
the school district. So I wonder if you'd speak to that. Is that true? Are we missing that kind of that middle infrastructure?
And then is there anything we can do to help resolve that? Yeah, through the chair. Thank you, Senator Dunbar. That the infrastructure is,
you know,
it is definitely a place that we need to grow infrastructure across the board.
Processing to make value added.
How we get there?
supporting our agencies for one will help so recently there were some grant
and they might still be available some USDA grant dollars for infrastructure
building infrastructure and processing. Our agencies are so maxed out from
staff capacity and dollars they can't like they literally don't have the
So, that's one area is building up the capacity, so our agencies could actually bring in more
dollars to help us build these, there's always the feasibility of processing.
We've talked about it a lot with meat processors, you know, slaughter facilities.
to make it financially feasible to build another plant but we need to
build plants to be able to scale up. You know we
need the infrastructure to scale up but
we don't have the quantity to
make a financially-feasible. So how do we
having some sort of investment to
build the brick-and-mortar infrastructure
while helping our farmers build
the market so they can safely scale
you know, they'll know that there's going to be a buyer at the end.
So we kind of need all these pieces working together,
because it doesn't work to just build a potato processor
without having someone there to make sure there is a market on the other end,
even if the school district's entered, there needs to
be someone having that communication also.
So it's, it would be nice if there was just one magic
answer to, make it all happen, but it is, we need
And we can we get there you say you've got chicken and the egg problem there
This and I have come to realize that everything in agriculture seems to be a chicken-and-egg problem
Senator Great Jackson has question. Thank you. Thanks for your presentation
And were just getting started, but I had like three questions and so the first one is what is virtual farming?
I mean, virtual fencing.
Oh, I saw that.
The farming.
Through the chair, Senator Jackson,
I was going to ask you what virtual farming,
but I know there are a lot of games out there
where people can have their farms.
So virtual fencing or e-fencing, it's,
and I'm just learning about it,
so I am not going get it completely correct,
but where you have a tracking collar on your animals,
so you can keep track of where they are.
within that to like they can't go outside of this boundary.
In my mind, it's kind of, I don't know if you're familiar
with like the dog fencing where there's just,
you either have a thing.
There's a base unit that emits a signal
in a certain circumference and the Dog has a collar on
when it gets close to that border.
It either emits a sound or you can turn it on to emit a little shock, but some way where
it indicates to the dog that it can't go beyond that boundary.
In my mind, that's similar for livestock virtual fencing.
But again, I've just started learning about it this past year.
No worries.
I could do a bit of research too.
And so my next question is in terms of federal grants, how many do our farmers in Alaska
Quite a bit of federal grants. You know, how much do you get from the feds in terms of the forming grants?
Because I know they're out there. Yeah, through the chair, Senator, great Jackson. I
Know I've looked at the USDA Ag Census and seen how many government funding I could pull up the number
I don't have it in my head right now. Margaret may know but we Alaska definitely does not
Get as much as other states
some of the big one the
reimbursement transportation cost payment program which helps with the high cost of shipping to the non-contiguous states
That's a big 1
But there are there. Are a lot of programs out there that our farmers have trouble getting
Partly due to match requirement partly due the size the scale
I think especially crop block grants are what, but that's not necessarily...
That's more of supporting research and innovation, not a direct payment to the farmer.
But I can get you the information out of the USDA accesses on the number.
I was at a conference I
think it was last year, and we were talking about farming throughout the country and farmers
And I really like this photo you have up here, not just because it's Black History Month,
but I see these black farmers. And one of the questions that I asked back then was,
are there black formers in Alaska? Yes, there are. Obviously, we would love to have more, but
I know there's a family up in Fairbanks who farms peonies. So yes,
Okay, but there is a family in Fairbanks that has a peon leaf farm
I know there are more that there's there. There's more. That's just one that that's this one
That I have not sure. Yeah, yeah, no, I don't know. They're our more and I think they're on my mind because I just saw them
Recently, okay. Well, thanks for the photo. It's really nice. Thank you. Thanks. You mr. Chairman. Take thank you
I'm wondering if if you and then the farmers who follow you could talk about some of
Seasonal temporary or part-time job opportunities that are available for Alaska's youth on farms here in Alaska
I mean Margaret which I was actually getting ready to turn the time over to Margaret and she would be happy to talk about that
Excellent, maybe before we do that. I'll segue back to Senator Dunbar's questions about school lunch
As we look at school luncheon think about what school. Lunch is
since a recent
presidential regime kind of made significant changes to school lunch school
lunch has gone more from cooking to heating up food because of nutritional
very strict nutritional guidelines and that
That means that that processing is required.
Growing up in Upper Michigan,
like we discussed earlier off the record,
I was very thankful to have school cooks
that actually cooked food and made lunch.
And before I I'm in kindergarten,
I helped my grandma, who was a school cook.
Peel potatoes early in the morning
by putting potatoes into a potato peeler,
and then they boiled them and make mashed potatoes,
or they cut them up and they put them in pasty pie,
or whatever.
So.
Until we're able to actually have school lunch programs where folks can actually cook food for kids instead of heat it up.
It'd be hard, hard to do any of those things, so.
But Mr. Chair, if I may kind of add to that,
several years, I want 2012, 2014, some ways back,
using fresh Alaska grown processing it in the school comparing it to and they used cabbages and
coleslaw, so
The Fairbank School District purchased whole fresh
Alaska-grown cabbage to where they had to have the staff time to shred it and you'll make the colslaw and
Then they they shipped in. The pre shredded bagged colislaw mix
And they found that the fresh Alaska whole cabbage,
even with the additional staff time to actually make it,
cost less.
You know, part of it was the bagged cabbage.
You had to throw some of that away
because it's already bad by the time it got up here.
They also found the students ate
the Fresh Alaska grown coleslaw.
So they even had less food waste afterwards.
But they did find that
even with the processing in the kitchen, it was less than the imported pre-shredded cabbage.
And so, and now, now we'll turn it over to Margaret. That's it. For the record, my name is Margaret
Because y'all don't know me, I'll introduce myself mostly
and first as the daughter of a grain farmer
from southeast Wisconsin.
My family was a fifth generation grain farm operators
and we ran about 2,000 acres.
It's scaled back a little bit since then.
So I'm a proud alumni of the FFA and the 4-H system
and spent my first career as I say as a farm labor
and then later as
a Farm Advocate through F.F.A. efforts
through my high school career.
I say that in context to the fact that when I came up here in 2008,
I felt pretty good that I understood what agriculture was,
and I was quickly schooled within my first year of employment,
working as first an intern and then an employee with the Alaska Farm Land Trust.
And I think what I want to do today is sort of walk back
and talk specifically about
farmers as individuals and so I'll encompass kind of the challenges that
they're facing individually.
The first question I often get asked and oh the other thing I did is in 2016 I started the Alaska
Farm Tourage Company. We were the first outfit to really focus straight on agritourism and we went
around to a variety of farms so during my time operating that business I got to speak with thousands
By and large, two things came out of that conversation.
One, they had no idea that Alaska farming
was so interesting and unlike anywhere else
that they'd ever been.
And the second real big thing is they
had wished that had come up here kind of particularly
focused on food system work.
Alaska does an amazing job talking about bears and mountains
and our amazing waterways.
But they were more interested in how
and I would reflect that to the tourism industry at large,
which is we are interesting in and of ourselves.
We're not just interesting for our mountains and our bears.
And so I've had the immense pleasure of the past.
15 years of sitting at a lot of tables, a
lot farm family tables both with my work with the farmland trust and with
the Alaska farm tours, talking about with what's challenging them and also
what is really really hard for them to move through.
farm businesses, just like small businesses.
They're rooted in family and family is complicated.
And owning farm operations is
complicated because of interpersonal family dynamics
as well as the challenges faced folks sort of taking
on a lot of asset risk in developing their businesses so.
Are there farmers interested in farming in the state of Alaska?
Is Amy reflected?
Did you reflect?
Were the fastest growing place in
the country for farmers?
Not only that, but in 2017 the Alaska farmland trust sort of
assessing a need that we needed to link farmers who had
agricultural lands with beginning farmers started the
Alaska farm link.
And through that time, we've had about 85 folks register looking for farm operations.
And because when you Google, where do I find farms in Alaska?
The Alaska Farm Link comes up.
I get a lot of phone calls, a lotta emails,
a lots of letter writing of folks sort of saying, I would like to farm.
I'd like start a farm operation.
Anywhere between 10 acres to 150 acres is like the average size in those applications.
It's really inspiring to read what they're interested in.
Midnight wanderings of people wanting to achieve something different going back to the land
So are there and people interested?
Yes
But here is where the challenge come in and when I talk to them on the individual basis
I say this is what you need in order for you to sort of start your farm business journey
and going back to the very beginning, what are we offering for Arctic agricultural training
and education? So we're looking at what across the state of Alaska are systems in place for
educating that next generation of farmers. And I feel that the 4-H and FFA does a really
great job for that sort of starting third through 12th grade of teaching sort in the
We don't have any training profiles, I'm not saying degree seeking, but even workshops
or certifications for ag business management, accounting services, enterprise development
and growth.
We haven't had a focus.
And given that, it's really exciting that UAF is sort of leading the charge of that.
I know Jodi Anderson has spoken with a lot of folks talking about starting a farm training
either be degree seeking or non-degree seeking for that development and in tandem with
that having good sound research and to understanding what type of farming operations are viable
in the state.
We can't base good business decisions on a dream.
We have to have some nuts and bolts of business planning.
So training education starts that and going into business infrastructure.
One would hope that if we had a good farm training program they would walk out with a
place with some sort of scope or training on the job training for an
externship type of thing. But even that, if you're walking out with your business
plan, where do you go next? You go to get financing. And that is a huge, huge hurdle
in the state of Alaska, because right now we have the air left.
We have ARC, which is Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation.
And we have Egg West as a primary funders for farming
in this state of Alaska.
I know they're a CFAB, but primarily those are three functions.
There have been a couple banks that have taken on private loans.
But by and large, it's a huge capital restriction
in the state
of Alaskas, especially when we're talking about operating loans
and then loans for purchasing land,
which I'll get to in a second.
extent to the fact we have the farm service agency that has a loan guarantee program so
that banks could go in it with the federal backing if there is a default on the loan.
And so we're currently working with FSA to bring together private financial institutions
to talk with them about how the structure of aglending works and then how federal government
Even in the restriction of that, let's say I'm as an individual, I get into farming,
I go through my training,
I have my business plan in place,
I've got my financials and maybe I can get some financing to start my operation.
The other big issue I might have is I'm not a trained accountant.
We do not have in the state of Alaska someone who is focused on AIG accounting that I can
send farmers to.
So when I get farmers at the table and I am talking to them through the farm link, it
becomes an issue because they don't have someone to run their books, even straight
up record keeping to be perfectly frank or lawyers who are trained and understanding
the complicated structure of a farm business operation.
on these sort of additional, sort
of agricultural services folks is also lacking in the state.
So on that door, I'm almost being EOR here.
So, OK, so maybe I am lucky.
I get my financing.
Maybe I got a really great slope job
so they can bank in on my house or I can get a chat alone on
that.
I go for it and I like, well, now I
can buy land.
I've got it.
I guarantee it for $500,000 to buy a property.
Where is that land? Our land currently right now is in the hands of an aging
population and that aging population is seeing the most unprecedented increase
in valuation of their farmland and so the farmland trust works to restrict those
farms and egg easements to bring down the farm land value but even still we're
looking at insane prices per acre so it is really really hard for an
anywhere between 40 to 75,000 per acre for their open lands because that's
going for development. We need
communities. We need new housing. I'm not saying that's on a primary issue, but we also need our
farmland. And so, okay, so there's land access. Maybe, maybe if I am lucky, I can convince a
farmer to go through a farmland transition planning and take me on as a farmer and let me buy it at
a fire sale rate. maybe I m lucky.
Maybe another thing I could do is look at a covenant grounds. Both boroughs and state have a
And so we've got a lot of our ag grounds, our good soils in the state that are sitting
under trees currently.
How are we managing those?
How we getting that next generation onto those grounds?
It's a big question.
And back in 80s, they had cost-share programs for helping to get forested parcels opened
up for ag ground.
And how are incentivizing the existing land orders to rent out those ground for agricultural
production?
That's big sort of conversation, I think, both on a borough and a state level we should
be having.
So that's land access, and then the other bit of that is how are we gaining access for rental grounds, so the state might be owning, which is another big issue that being discussed.
All those ways might get me on to land.
So let's say I get that land, I purchase it 500,000, got my property, maybe I got a barn with that,
I'm lucky.
I can go into production into that first year rather than waiting three to five years if I am opening up new ground.
And I, am getting full production, have got me potatoes, but have I gotten, do I have a contract for those potatoes?
school system. A lot of those contracts a challenge being there's a minimum
quantity amount so maybe I'm not year one production able to meet those
minimum quantity amounts and then how are we processing. I have walked both my
brother and my best friend friend hit through the rural development value out
of grant process. It is a giant challenge to go through that grant
process so
be it as it may as an individual operator, how do I get that value out of processing to
meet those contracts where they're at, albeit.
I love the Japanese model where the make the kids cook, but less we change the entire
education system.
For me as a farmer to meet the contracts, I'm challenged at the quantity amounts and
I'm going to say this with all the love of my heart. Farmers are a very challenging group to
work in cooperation, but co-ops are the foundation of good farming infrastructure building. And so
that's a way that you could build infrastructure as if you get farmers to cooperate and
feel the faith that will see it to its end, that they can have a reliable pathway for
distribution for their products.
But there's a lot of failed cooperative models, and so there is a hesitation or a lack of
trust in making those work.
We have good examples in the state.
The Peony farmers are doing it really well.
You said someone else was doing really, well, I was supposed to remember,
and I can't right now, for that, who's doing good cooperative work in state?
The Delta Farm Co-op, thank you very much.
That's 33, Amy.
So, getting those and working on those contract relationships, those are government contracts.
We're not even talking about distribution chains for working within private industry.
And right now, I've had many conversations with farmers, which was frustrating for them
to have those conversations, with distributors, Kroger and Costco, et cetera, to force, not
force a hand, but let them into the door to sort of say, what is our supply line for you?
How do we make it so that it's a preferential buy within your store systems for that?
And not to mention, how do I get you the product?
If I'm up in Delta Junction,
how am I moving my product down to Anchorage,
which is where our population banks are,
who's helping me bear that cost
because it is a pretty big cost?
I'm done being Eeyore now and so I think you've heard from me but I
think it's more important that you hear from our farmers here from not the
horse's mount but the people who have lived this experience and I am going to
introduce Emily Garrity from Twitter Creek Gardens and then she'll be talking
about her farms.
I don't think we have any questions,
but we do appreciate Winnie the Pooh references here.
As well as Wilbur.
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you.
I'm responsible for free review and slides.
I'll come into your room.
Oh, my.
It's a group effort.
Page of four.
Yeah so.
Here.
Next.
Okay.
All right.
Well, yeah.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank You.
Here we are, Emily Garrity.
Tarned coffee and looks like Ken Hoffman. Yes. Well, thank you all
Glad you're here
Thank you for having us
Please take your name and affiliation for the record. Absolutely. Thank You, mr. Chair and members of the committee
I'm Emily Garrity. I am the owner operator of Twitter treat gardens outside of Homer and
Thanks for opportunity to invite me here and share my story
And I appreciate with Ms. what Margaret and Amy shared about the challenges of being a farmer in Alaska.
And, I'll just tell you a little bit about my journey.
And then you'll hear from these fine farmers as well.
I am a born and raised Alaskan and I'm a career farmer of 27 years.
I've been working on the Twitter Creek Gardens project for the last 20 years and what started with a tiny little.
quarter acre backyard garden has now grown to two acres of production.
Last year, we harvested 40,000 pounds of produce on two
acres.
We are located just out of.
Outside of Homer. I'm not sure if I said that already, but we have several avenues of sale
We distribute through the Homer farmers market. We have a vegetable subscription program in the summer
We had 75 members that get weekly boxes of vegetables from us
We Have a fall program as well as a we started our first winter CSA distribution this year and that went through December
Mostly from storage crops. we sell the two local rest
local restaurants, wholesale, mostly specialty salad mixes, and we distribute weekly to our
community food pantry as well as our women's shelter at the Haven House. Last year, we contributed
over $15,000 worth of produce to the food access programs that are in place in Alaska and in our
Due to being on the road system and the transportation hub for both boat and airline
Transportation we're able to reach several communities in and around Homer. We've shipped as far as Juno and
Recently we've been able two ship boxes of produce to tionic
Traveling from Aleutian air up to Anchorage and then there's another carrier that
Distributes out to tie on it. So transportation has been a main issue, but we are trying to work
with Alaska Food Policy Council and the other people
in the food system section to help us
with transportation across the state.
We have an established farm, a dedicated and experienced crew
and have dialed in our growing systems.
And because of that, we're starting
to maximize the land that we are on right now
and we really looking to expand.
Just less than a half acre from our existing operation, there's a 27 acre parcel of state land that has historically been used for agricultural use.
Now it is classified as recreational property, but my understanding is that the classification doesn't prohibit agriculture production.
the land lease application process.
And we started the inquiry in February of 2022.
Right now, the Ketchamec Nordic Ski Club
is adjudicating a trail easement on that property.
They were the first stop we made.
Your ski trails go on the perimeter of this property,
would it inhibit your recreational use at all
if we farmed in between your trails?
And they...
immediately came back with a unanimous resolution of support to support our farming endeavors and
as well as the property, the adjacent property owners, they were all in support. So we started
communications with DNR in 2022, finally figured out how to apply, put in the land use development
our $2,000 application fee and submit our application to DNR in March of 2023.
We were advised at that time.
Just wanted to do a quick background on this.
We're advised that at time to submit a lease length of 10 years or under
because it could eliminate the.
appraisal process or it has the option to and our understanding was that our
estimated fee would be about a thousand dollars per year for four and a half
acres of this 27 acre parcel in between the ski trails. So it went through the
process to the agency review the public comment period. I think there's nine or
ten different steps that it needs to be
to go through in order to get approved and almost two years later is when they
determined that there would actually have to be an appraisal and the fee
associated with the appraisal that was done which came at $117,000 for the
appraised rate of the property making the annual fee $9,360 which is 8% of
the praised value and that is bound by statute is what we were told.
So, in July 2025, the final finding decision was completed and in August the appeal period
ends and now I'm at a point where I either have to sign on the line that says, sure,
I'll pay $9,360 a year for four and a half acres or change statutes or drop it altogether.
I just want to point out that there are currently only four active leases in the state of Alaska for crop production,
three of which were established in
the 1960s, and the fourth one there is in a remote area
west, Susitna River Valley area,
and it took them 11 years to
land on actually having their lease approved
and under contract.
And then I'm, of course, the last one there.
It's been pending.
And again, I've been working on it from starting
the conversation to now almost four years.
I want to point out that none of these
include leases solely for grazing,
which is a whole different thing.
So I really appreciate what Margaret and Amy shared
with you today about the potential of agriculture
in Alaska.
I think it'd be really helpful if we were taking seriously
Just from what I'm doing, I am producing 40,000 pounds of produce on two acres of land right
now.
If I can extend that to another four and a half acres,
I have the opportunity to triple my current production rate.
I could employ more farmers.
I offer more seasonal jobs like you spoke to Senator.
I expand our storage crop production and extend the seasonality of Alaskan grown products
in our area.
in our area I'm working to take over certified seed potato production which limits the potato
imports that bring in disease so we keep that local keep food budget dollars in the state
snap recipients have more options and there's more potential here but thank you for your time
For the record, my name is Tern Coffey from Ninana, Alaska with Coffee Farm
Appreciate this opportunity
I'll keep it try to keep a brief so we have plenty of time for some questions
Okay, so in a nutshell, we are the first operational farm on the new Ninanna took jacket ag project
I'm sure some of you have seen if you've been paying attention to the leases and the sales.
So phase 1A was the first one that went out in I believe 2022.
We gained access to property in spring of 2023.
So there's what the actual map looks like.
We've gained 92 acre, the 71 acre and three more smaller parcels.
On the left is us going out to check out the property before we did the lease.
The right picture is what that country looks like.
So obviously there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
Not only is it grown up in brush,
but it's also all the trees that fell over during the fire.
So it is very difficult to get out and access and do anything with.
So through the help of a mulcher,
we decided to mulch as much as possible and put it right back into the ground.
This way you don't have those burn piles that stick out in fields
which is very important, especially in our case,
when you go through the effort of developing the field.
Little bit of dozer time, little bit
of burning, it's all part of the process.
So there's about the first half of a year
in declaring our farm, and this is the high ground.
That's the good ground for growing on.
So here we are at either the end of first year
or the start of second year.
And we've able to run a disc over the farm for the first time.
So it's taken a year to go from the raw land to actually
something we can do something with.
Here's what we grow.
We're Alaska's largest sweet corn field.
So you're looking at roughly a 10 acre field of sweet
corn.
So we commercially grow sweet corned.
That's why it looks like about 12 or 13 days after you plant it.
Sometime in mid-August, it's getting close to time to harvest, which is exciting.
It's almost ready. Now checking the field, making sure the product's going to be ready for the
consumer. This is a big deal.This is the first time we got to actually load up a pallet of sweet
corn to take to the wholesaler. So we use Charlie's produce and we're lucky enough to
in Fairbanks, which is one of Charlie's subsidiaries.
And they can pick it up and take it to Anchorage.
And then this load went out to the Three Bear Stores,
which was exciting.
There's some at, I think that picture's actually in New
Sagaya.
They picked up some too.
There are some barley.
It grows really well there, too, just like in Delta.
So some of the challenges, we had an access challenge.
There was a really basic oil.
Well road that was into there and through the the grace of the legislature the
Department's got some funding to update the road and that is great with
New bridges, so we come back to access for farmers, which is really important
They put a lot of effort into making all the other roads so that farm project stands a good chance of being successful because access is key
Power was installed last year
So now you have access to power, which
is important as well for producing everything
from greenhouse crops to livestock.
And we even have some of the bison out there
from that cantitiona herd came up to visit for a little while.
Fish and game has encouraged them to go back
to where they're supposed to be for the summer.
So challenges?
available land is a big challenge so keeping the ball rolling so these young
farmers and people coming out have a place to get into some new land that's
really important and I think it trickles down if we do if
we auction land off in the process we predictably there may be some people that
buy an auction parcel life changes for them well that piece will come out to
the the community to buy you know somebody wants to bite over the counter
which is important.
So I'm gonna pass it on, so there's plenty of time for,
again, and answer questions if we get done in time.
All right.
Thank you, Mr. Coffee,
and I can thank you and appreciate you
for tolerating those wood bison
as an experimental species on the landscape.
They're pretty important to a lot of people,
so we appreciate your indulgence for welcoming them
for a little while.
Thank-you for doing that.
All all right,
So for the record, my name is Ken Hoffman.
I'm the owner of Matsu Microgreens.
We're a small farm out in beautiful Palmer, Alaska.
So I got one slide here showing off my crew.
So we started our business back in,
I think it was October 2022.
And I started it because I just quit my job as an accountant.
I wasn't enjoying the office life.
I've had a degree in accounting.
And it really wanted to be a farm.
I always wanted it to a farmer.
And so I started this business in my spare bedroom,
in apartment, and we started growing microgreens
in our apartment in the winter time,
year-round selling greens, doing a home delivery model.
And then now, today, a couple years later,
we are selling to distributors.
We do about a quarter million dollars in micrograins,
sell them statewide, all the way to the North Slope.
We do the cruise lines, the trains get them, LASCO resorts are
the biggest client right now.
So we're really enjoying it.
There are a few issues that I ran into while growing the business.
The biggest issue has to come down to the gap audit that
I'm doing, so it's called HGAP, Harmonize Good Agricultural Practices Audit.
It's just, it's a lot of paperwork for a farmer.
I have a degree in accountings, so thankfully, I'm not a stranger to paperwork, but it is
a huge issue for most of our farmers.
They're farmers because they're passionate about agriculture.
They are not really into food safety rules and all of this, all the paperwork that goes
with it.
I was selling microgreens for two years before my food-safety audit.
do not go through the food safety audit.
So I would say that the audit doesn't necessarily
make the farms safer, in my opinion.
It's just a lot of paperwork, it's a lotta red tape.
But it okay in the other states,
there seems to be like third-party consultants
or the Department of Ag would help farmers write this up.
Here in Alaska, our poor division of ag is...
They don't have a lot of support, a lotta staff.
So one of their staff members is an auditor,
as a contractor for the USDA, and they do the audit for us.
So this audit is USDA.
And it would be nice, this is my dream.
It would nice if the division of AG had more support
and had a consultant that could help the farmer.
Because right now farmers, they wanna sell
the Charlie's produce, for instance.
So Charlie they called me up.
They said, hey, I wanna buy your stuff.
I always said to tell them, well, I haven't gone through the audit process.
And it's a lot of money.
It's $1,800 to go through that audit
process, but once I did it, Charlie's has been excellent to work with.
But that would be my dream is that the Division of Ag had some more support
regarding that.
So in my opinion,
I think that that will be the best way to do that
would possibly be a Department of AG, just more
support to that, thank you.
Senator Grey Jackson has a couple of questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm really, really enjoying this presentation. It's pretty darn educational, especially for me coming from a big city originally.
But anyway, what exactly is a microgreens?
Yeah. So in the photo, you can kind of see it. They're different from sprouts. Sprouts are grown in water.
The most common ones among bean sprout.
I legally can't grow spr outs or sell them.
They are considered more of a food product.
cultural so I can grow them on a farm in Salom, but they're grown in trays, just
10, 20 gardening trades indoors and we harvested above the soil line, we package
them in salom and they only grow for about 10 days before we sell them. But
that's the difference between sprout and microgreen. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman,
can I follow up with another question? Absolutely. Thank you. And so in terms of
auditing, I mean, who gets audited? Do all farmers get audoted or just because
So through the chair
The reason that I was audited is because I wanted to sell through large distributors
So Cisco us foods Charlie's produce they are required to only purchase from farms that have gone through this auditing process
But when I started off, you know, I sold direct to consumer farmers markets and I didn't require an audit
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am curious for for all three of you
The challenge that I alluded to earlier about health insurance for yourself or for your employees
How do you typically handle that to some of your employee's access to Medicaid programs? You have a sort of more traditional
private insurance to people use the ACA
Exchanges if you could speak to that. Are curious how you guys resolve those issues? I'll start with mine. So
We carry an umbrella policy for, you know, damage or injury as far as health insurance.
Up to this point, we've pretty much utilized folks that probably are retired or semi-retired,
so they have some other type of coverage, so, they're not too worried about that, but
you're correct.
That is a challenge to all the farmers is entry-level, labor to get started.
Through the chair. Thank you for the question senator. We
most of the employees that we have either qualify for Medicaid or they use the
healthcare marketplace or I'm forgetting the exact name of it right now, but we do provide workman's comm
To have any thoughts about yours, okay
Through The chair Ken Hoffman my wife is a works at a hospital and she provides health insurance through that
This follow up, Mr. Chair.
Indeed, not a question, it's a comment.
Yeah, I grew up in Cordova, and so fishing fleet there,
and small processors, too,
and it was just interesting, the similar challenges
you have in finding those kinds of things.
And yeah, a lot of fishermen, their spouse,
has more traditional insurance,
and that's how they're covered, you know?
Not everybody, but just enough that it is noticeable.
And it has a real challenge,
so I appreciate you guys for...
for working through it. I know it's not easy.
My question for Tarn, Taryn, do you guys hire detassellers?
No, we don't have any tasselers since we use a hybrid corn, so you think about the oil plant.
imagine a mule is the best way to describe it. So our corn comes from two
different types of corn and a detastler they'll go through and cut off the top
of the female plant that they want to keep the kernel from
and the plant next to it's going to be the the donor
so they you get a hybrid type so yeah so it''s hybrid corn
no detaster but you must have done that manually when you were a kid.
Many times, many times.
We do not personally make any corn chowder, but we do sell to quite a few restaurants
And you'd ask me who that comes back to using a wholesaler when I give it to Charlie's it goes off to and there is
This last year there was great demand for our corn
They actually were getting a month or two before season. They want to know when it was going to be available. So which is nice
Very good. Well, thank you all for joining us today. Glad you're here. Thank you.
Thank You up next is Rachel long acre
From the Department of Mining or Division of mining land and water with the department of natural resources
This afternoon through the chair, can you hear me? Okay, five by five ma'am. Thank you for joining us
Wonderful welcome well good afternoon and thank you
For the opportunity to speak today for the record
My name is Rachel long-acre and I am here representing the division of minding land in water within the Department of Natural Resources
We recognize and applaud the significant efforts that farmers are investing on the ground from clearing land to delivering produce to market.
Our goal here today though is to provide an overview of DNR's current agricultural leasing and sale processes and highlight areas where improvements are needed to better serve Alaska farming community.
Our division manages approximately 105 million acres of general state uplands along with our other state lands.
Of these lands, some are classified as agricultural and suitable for agricultural settlement.
Our constitutional mandate is to ensure maximum use of state lands consistent with the public
interest.
And both leasing state land as Twitter Creek Farms has explained and selling state
lands as turn coffee has purchased are both with, with
the two tools that we use to meet that mandate support Alaska's agricultural economy.
So starting with the fundamentals, agricultural leases under DNR authority are purpose-specific,
meaning that they're primarily intended for grazing animals, growing hay, and crop production.
These leases are designed to keep land and productive agricultural use, but fall under
the same structure as all general state land leases, with no specific authority for agricultural
type leases.
Leases are applicant driven, meaning that the responsibility starts with the producer
to identify the land best suited for their needs.
Our area plans will highlight suitable areas of agricultural land use as well as use soil
data from soil and water conservation districts, but these are on a much, much larger scale.
Applicants will work with DNR adjudicators to demonstrate two things, the intended agricultural
Long-term leases are awarded through a public notice and competitive process.
However, in practice, we rarely see competing applications.
Short- term leases, on the other hand, are non-competitive,
but because of their reduced term, they don't support large-scale investments on
the land.
Under TNR's current authority, surveys and appraisals are required for long-
term lease, including leases with an agricultural purpose.
Surveys establish legal boundaries and appraisals ensure that the public receives fair value
for the land as the statute calls for fair market value in return.
Some of the challenges that we know we have with our leasing program.
We acknowledge the progress farmers have made and we're targeting internal changes to shorten
our adjudication windows.
However, the processes of identifying suitable locations, survey and appraisal processes,
can be lengthy and complex for our applicants. These create barriers for
our new farmers in particular. Currently the adjudication process for an
agricultural lease is nine to twelve months from application
to early entry authorization. Now I will pivot just shortly here for
a second that we do have general state land
leases. We have about 1,500 currently. Emily is correct that
Our time span span for our regular leases or our general state land leases.
On average, require about 66 adjudication days, if you will.
Agricultural leases, though, because of the nuances back and forth with the farmers are significantly longer.
Agricultural land sales under DNR is a different authority.
These differ from leasing because they are driven by DNR making land available rather than
applicant requests. So there is still an option for the public to nominate state land for a
sale offering. Land is first identified and classified for agricultural use through area plans.
The process includes a preliminary decision followed by public notice and comment to ensure
transparency. Once finalized land is offered through a sealed bid auction and then over the
Buyers must maintain agricultural use under these covenants, and a survey and appraisal
are required before conveyance.
Costs include the appraised purchase price plus survey entitled fees, while fair market
value is required by statute, agricultural, use and covenance effectively reduce the value
compared to unrestricted fee-simple land.
Currently purchasers are vetted on the highest bid rather than on a development plan or the
merits of agricultural used.
And in the case of current agricultural lessees, there is not a method to transition from a lease
to an option of sale without a separate application and adjudication process that is subject to a
separate decision point from the original lease. Under current DNR authorities, we can issue
agricultural leases and land sales within the framework provided by statute. However, if there
we could make the process more efficient and better aligned with agricultural needs.
Those improvements include clarifying fee schedules specifically for agricultural leases
to avoid reliance on costly appraisals like the approach used in our Mariculture program.
Developing a lease-to-sale process with merit-based awards rather than relying solely on the highest
Strengthening our covenant management so agricultural covenants are enforceable, but also when land conditions change are manageable while still protecting agricultural productivity.
And finally, reducing requirements for surveys and appraisals specifically for agricultural leases to cut delays and cost and making the process more predictable and accessible for producers.
In closing, DMLW is committed to improving agricultural releases and sale processes to better support Alaska's farming community.
We welcome collaboration and input to ensure these changes meet the needs of farmers while upholding responsible land management.
I appreciate the time you've given me and I'm happy to take any questions.
Well, thanks again for joining us. You talked about a little bit, the ability for the state
to strengthen covenants. Could you let the committee and the public know what that means
and what what it would look like for, uh, The Department? Certainly, um,
Chair, Senator York mentioned chair as the chairman. Um, we currently have covenants on all
In the past, there have been land sales that do not have the same review that we currently go
through in our art proposals, and sometimes that land has changed. For example, in the
Trapper Creek area, agriculture, agricultural uses are high, but there are some parcels that
are predominantly wet. And it's difficult for us to enforce development on those parcels when
is really stuck in this limbo of being for agricultural use, as well as we would like
to see that there's more defined management of those evidence so that we have the ability to
be more stringent in that management to ensure that those commitments are fulfilled,
and that land doesn't languish or is not used for equitable purposes.
Very good. Senator Dunbar has a question.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank You miss long-acre. I was wondering if you could comment a little bit more about the Indiana to to chock it
Project, you know, we had a good testimony from one of the landowners here now and and that farm is up and running
I know we've made the state made some some
infrastructure
Investments there to try to open up that land and how many how?
Many sales have there been how, many active forms are there and sort of you?
Know in general
What's the status?
Senator Dunbar, through the chair, that's a great question.
I'd be hesitant to give you exact numbers here
without providing those concrete.
I can follow up, but I could tell you
that it's been a very successful land sale offering.
We've, I've been to Turncoffee's farm.
I had his corn.
I have enjoyed spending time out there with our farmers
as they really have shown that success story.
We have.
Improved roads out there. We've created
access for
Utilities and we've brushed property lines and all of these really help get that jump start on for the farmer
It is not easy work though being a farmer and there is lots of work in turning that land over
If it if it pleases the committee, I'll follow up with exact numbers. Thank you. Thanks. You mr. Chair
very well
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to divert and go back to Mr Hoffman.
Yeah, because you talked about audit, okay, and the question is, is that a federal audit or a state audit?
Through the chair, it's a Federal audit standards, but we have state employee is the one that administers the audit.
It's longer for your presentation, but my question is how can we improve the audit process?
And since it's a federal audit, maybe you really can't answer the question, it seemed
a little more complex than it really needed to be after hearing from you.
And so that's basically the questions that I have to somebody.
Thank you, thank you Mr. Chairman.
Senator Great Jackson threw the chair just to be clear,
and I apologize for not making this clear
in the beginning of my presentation.
DNR and specifically DMLW, in this case,
is the division that manages the land.
The activities, the farming activities
in that federal program, I do believe,
is managed by the Division of Ag,
and could not speak for my counterpart.
We can follow up if necessary.
I think miss sites might be able to help us out here.
Yeah, Senator Gray Jackson for the record Amy sites policy director for Alaska Farm Bureau
Yeah the H gap audit is run through the division of agriculture within the Department of Natural Resources
It's a federal requirement and then the the larger as Ken mentioned
Distributors grocery stores you they require any
Farmer going through that market to have the h-gap audit before
they can start selling there. But it's run through the division of agriculture.
There's one employee to do the audit. There is no technical assistance for the farmers
to prepare for audit and if you fail, you can't get any feedback on why you failed. You just have
to go through process again. So that's, it is division agriculture not mining land and water
but it has a federal requirement that the state manages to reach the larger markets.
Yes, thank you for that explanation, but my question still stands, you know
I mean there's nobody here from the Department of Agriculture. I'm assuming but I am just wondering how that audit process can be improved
Thank you. Thank You, Mr. Chairman. You're welcome
the director
Scorsby is in the room
Mr.. Scoresby if you would like to chat about that you can or you could get back to the committee at a later date
I think we better get back to you later today.
That sounds great.
Thank you.
Thank for being here.
Appreciate that.
Are there any other questions for Ms. Longacre?
I have one.
So we were talking a little bit about egg covenants.
If there are a bunch of junk vehicles
and a lot of things that are definitely not
farming going on on egg covenant land right now,
what happens?
Certainly.
So, Senator Bielkman, with land management, you know, we often see that there is, junk
collects junk, and we want to make sure that we're able to support agriculture.
We do have statutory authorities that ensure that agriculture is the primary use.
You can be a farmer and have a junk cart.
That's where the management comes in to play and while I've got Director Scorsby from
the Division of Ag in the room, land management for the lease terms, if we're talking about
a lease, we are going to partner with the division of AG and we will ask them to do
farm inspections.
And as long as they say that we were meeting those farm inspection in a positive and conducive
Now if there's jump cars we work, we being the department in our partnership with the Division
of Act, We work to notify them that their primary use needs to be agriculture and that they may be
failing with that many jumpcars or whatever it be. What's the remedy? Very good. That is the next
I'm sorry, I just wanted a brief follow-up.
But what's the remedy?
Is it canceling the lease?
Is that fines?
How do you ensure that there's compliance
if someone is out of compliance?
Senator Dunbar, through the chair, there is not fines.
We do not have any enforcement or bail schedule, if you will.
There is no penalty.
If you are under an active lease, we will work.
to get you righted, and if you're not able to write your ship, if
you will, your lease could be terminated.
In a land sale, though, like turn coffee is purchased land
through the Nanamato jacket, there is covenants that are
forever covenous, they're in perpetuity,
they are on your deed,
and you could use in the land for another purpose, maybe you just
Statutorily, it says that that land can revert back to the state of Alaska, but it's very
cut and dry, can revert back. There's no real mechanisms for us to actually go in and take
somebody's land back if they're not using it for act.
Well, if they're violating the covenant, can you, I mean,
I don't think you'd want to, but can't you the Department of Law take them to court?
I'm mean would that be the way it would work?
Or am I misunderstanding how that covenant would
work, and I am not suggesting you shouldn't do this.
Senator Dunbar?
Go ahead.
Senator Dumbar, through the chair, yes, absolutely.
We would pursue court proceedings to take title back.
Historically, we have not taken those methods very costly.
and we would have to have an incredibly strong case.
And a few jump cars with a small operation of a farm
doesn't really constitute us to go and pull that back.
Yeah, I'm thinking more, if someone,
not that this is, to a developer, for example,
and wanted to build a bunch of housing on it
and clearly in violation,
it may be the state would want to step in,
but it sounds like that doesn' really happen.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Senator Dunbar. Yeah, just for a finer point in the example, I think when we think about
parses of land
That have egg covenants that do have junk cars and maybe junk RV and the only thing that is being grown on that property is meth crystals
That that might not be the kind of Alaska grown products that we're looking for
So I know that you know, and I have a constituent with a situation like that
been looking at this piece of ag covenant land that's been
in the state that it's in for many years and nothing has happened. So I know that
there is significant interest in
the division, either mining land and water or ag,
being able to work with the Department of Law to enforce ag covenants, especially
land is being used for such a purpose, but there's history, right? There's
history in the state with this, and we should probably spend some time either
here in The Resources Committee talking about the traveling cows and
Point-L-A-Kensie and what happened in
the 80s as a result of state land being sold for bargain bottom prices and
being expected to be farmed and then a land wasn't farbed.
And what types of leeway do statues need in order to have workable solutions for farmers
that because of market pressures they can't farm, and maybe they cannot necessarily
meet their egg covenants, but what can we do to help those glands still stay in farm production?
Just to tell you a brief story, so we had egg governance farmers were expected to farm. They had
some dairies, a point Mac, and when it came time to have farming inspections that one farmer
who had cows like rented his cows out to other farmers so that the cows could be there on the
farms ahead of the inspector getting there. The inspector though, he was thinking,
he noticed that some of cows were the same from farmer to farmer and he said,
It didn't help the farmer's case that sometimes,
one time he showed up and they were unloading the cows
at the farm he got to.
So yeah, fascinating.
But I do think that people expect,
people would expect there to be farming activities
executed on lands that are supposed to farmed.
And if we are going to have some level of food security
and the ability to ask and grow food here,
we need to preserve farm ground.
and then make sure that that ground is used for growing things and many, many people love to eat
things that are grown here in Alaska. Many of our tours do. Lots of businesses are seeking out
those products. Royal Caribbean was in my office just last week and we want to buy more Alaska
and some oats and all this, tons of good stuff.
So it's all out there.
But we really appreciate you being here today.
The farms in Alaska do provide excellent employment
opportunities for other people who have seasonal employment.
So fishermen, school teachers, other seasonal
employment that's around where you know,
fishing guides or hunting guides.
Many of these people work on Alaska's farms
and sort of their kids.
They harvest peonies they they work to they worked on beef farms, and I talked to them a lot
They're they're in our communities, they do pretty awesome things, so
Thank you for being here today. We'll spend some time in this committee and other committees
Talking about farm issues and farm bills, then we appreciate you all
We further questions or comments I have so many farm jokes, I think
Um, there's no further visits come before the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee today, but our next meeting will be on Friday
February 12th. We'll take up two bills sent up at 196 and Senate bill 225.
We are adjourned at 250 p.m.