I call the Senate Artic Affairs Committee to order.
Today is February 12th, 2026,
and the time is 3.32 p.m.
We...
are here with the Arctic Affairs Committee members present, Senator Kawasaki,
Senator Wilakowski, Vice Chair Senator Stevens, and myself,
Senator Giesle. We have a quorum to conduct business.
Thank you, Julie and Kayla for, or Kyla for helping us with
the audio and keeping the records.
So today we're having a presentation from the Institute of Agriculture,
Natural Resources, an extension from
University of Alaska Fairbanks.
We had a presentation last year.
It was so good, so we're pretty excited
to have Jody Anderson back, who is the director
of the Institute.
So welcome, Jodi, Ms. Anderson, Director Anderson.
Thank you, Senator.
For the record, my name is Jodie Anderson
I'm with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
I am the Director of the Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Extension.
I live in Palmer, Alaska as a full-time resident.
I really appreciate the invitation, Chair.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share the-
the great work that we're doing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks within our Institute with regard to
the development of not only agriculture, but forestry research and how we are working
at that circular level and so understanding the importance of
Arctic within the Special Committee
Our focus today will be really looking at what we've done
where we're going and why we are doing what we
are going. We are really excited today. I represent
an amazing group of researchers,
technicians, staff, and faculty
that all work to enrich the lives of Alaskans
every day.
Today I'd like to share with you some of the work
that we're doing for circumpolar connections
and in addition to that strengthening
our Alaska food system.
We are a federally funded component
of The University of Alaska Fairbanks.
We're part of land grant university system
and so we are obligated to
share a notice of non-discrimination
at all of our presentations.
So after you've finished reading that,
Please let me know, and I'll share it later,
but we'll move on.
Thank you.
As a quick reminder of what our institute is
and where we're located and what we do.
We are the Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension.
We no longer have a school of agriculture at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
However, our institute is a standalone institute where we do research and we
do outreach.
So our research side of the house is where
national land-grant university program of the experiment station, the agriculture, and for us we do agricultural and forestry research and that's our experiment
station and then also within our institute we also have the cooperative extension system which is part of
the land grant programmatic side of that outreach component and so our mission truly is to take research
do use that research to develop education and outreach opportunities to enhance the lives of Alaskans.
We do that in Alaska, very different than other states.
We have our positive youth development, which is our 4-H program,
and we also do community economic development work,
forestry and environment work agricultural research and food security.
We, most of the work that we do can be placed into the realm
of strengthening the Alaskan food system, regardless of which one
of these piles that you would put that work.
As you can see from this map.
It's pretty self-explanatory.
We, in addition to the two tractors,
we also have agricultural research land in Delta Junction,
where we have active research going on.
And very exciting, it's to a point
where will be hiring a summer technician
who lives in delta this summer.
That's the first time that's happened
in many, many years, well over 20.
We have 10 cooperative extension service offices.
that are spread throughout the state.
The exciting thing about our extension offices
is that they are community folks who work in those offices.
And so when we have an opportunity
to share information with communities directly,
we do that through these offices,
so we had this network that connects us
into those communities.
And the work that we did is everything from
food safety, food preservation, all the way through to the Lumber Grating Program that
has just started.
So I'd like to start with a huge thank you.
very kindly was able to give us $2 million in funding
to support our small grains and nutrition,
livestock nutrition research work.
And so I'd like to start first with some of the items
that we purchased and why we did so.
I think it's really important for all of you to understand
with this money and that we used it very efficiently
and in the most multi-faceted way.
These aren't, as a friend of mine calls it,
these aren´t garlic presses, right?
They´re not a one trick pony, these are multiple-use opportunities.
And so I´d like to draw your attention to the two blue
implements on the screen.
You'll see that the one in the upper right is a planter.
And that planters is from 1982.
It is the parts are no longer available and haven't been for years.
It breaks consistently.
As you well know, in Fairbanks, there's a very narrow window for planting.
And if we're broken down and we miss the window, then that would alter our research for an entire growing season.
And we have to wait until the next season
We were getting cross contamination with this particular planter, and so that meaning if
we had a particular grain being planted in one, we weren't able to clean it all the
way out for the next plot to start.
two different varieties in the same plot, so contamination.
Not contamination that was bad,
that it wasn't edible or it was poison
or anything horrible, it's just contamination
with a different variety,
so it isn't pure.
So our planter was a problem.
In the middle, the Dr. Seuss-looking machine
is our plot combine.
And I wanna explain.
The picture in the center, lower center is also a combine.
That's more traditional looking combine, it's a multi row combine
Our research plots are six wide, okay, so you have six rows in a plot.
If you can imagine using the combine in
It's not efficient. You'd have to plant six rows and then move 30 feet and plant
six more rows. And you'll see in a slide later that we keep our plots very, very close together.
That combine is not going to work.
So you need a specialized piece of equipment.
Of course, you do.
And that is called a plot combine.
And the picture in the upper middle, the plot
combine, again, an 80s version, is very short,
and it harvests six rows at a time.
So you're able to harvest your plot,
keep that harvested material separate to analyze it,
and then do the next plot.
Unfortunately, it's incredibly human-driven,
and even sometimes literally.
And so it takes three people to do a plot harvest.
It is, you see, they're all sitting and standing in.
and covering faces, there's lots of dust,
there is a lot of particulate matter that's blown up
in the process, and you have to have your technicians
who are right ready with the bags to hook the new one up
when a new plot comes through.
Also parts were not working,
and again, our Harvest Window in Fairbanks
is incredibly narrow, as it is in Palmer,
If we miss a harvest, we've missed our data collection,
and we have missed a whole year of research.
And it was breaking down a lot.
So with this money,
we were able to support getting rid of those two beasts.
And now they're just weird, pretty things
that sit at the farms, which is fine.
We have two zerns now, if you notice in the left-hand side.
That is a new plot combine.
And not only is this a really nice looking combine,
which really doesn't matter,
but if you notice there are two people inside.
One of them is the driver,
and they are driving to harvest a plot, six row plot.
The person next to them is a technician and during this harvest this machine and the technician
are working with the machine so that material comes in, it's immediately labeled and they
keep going.
There's no stop, there's not anything.
In this mechanism, the machine is also taking moisture content, measurements, it's taking
weight measurements.
It saved us just this fall time in harvest.
It's saved three and a half weeks of technician work in terms of data collection, of information
So not only is it a more efficient machine,
it's helping us work more safely and faster.
It's also helping
us in terms of our team and getting them much,
we're getting our data much faster than before.
The other really nice thing about the Zern
is that the parts are John Deere compatible.
And so all parts, if.
We need to replace a part.
We can find it at a John Deere dealer.
So Craig Taylor can order it for us and we can have it
at either of our farms at the same time.
The other thing to keep in mind is that we have two farms
that were working at and driving a piece of equipment
between Palmer and Fairbanks during a three day
harvest window is not realistic.
And so we're able to purchase one at each location.
Which is a fantastic opportunity in the bottom right-hand corner. This is our new planter
It's a drill this drill is also
Set up to it's called a dril. I know it doesn't look like drill, but it is called or drill
This planters is able to plant in plot size so we can do the sixth row width
It is very
easy to move. And the really nice thing is that it can take seed sizes from the size of a P,
which is very large, all the way down to the side of Canola, which
is a very small, and everything in between.
And we can calibrate it much easier than the old one.
And again, this is John Deere, so the parts are available if anything happens,
and we have one in both sites as well. So it's very exciting opportunities here.
bragging and thanking for the governor's funding.
This is our support.
Some of the funds that we use to support
our livestock nutrition research,
we were able to purchase a new tractor
and a New Baylor for round bales for our cattle
for new livestock research program.
That was a huge need.
The tractor and Baylor we had,
the Baylor broke down.
every time and we were spending hours and days working on the Baylor and then if
there was a part waiting until it got there three days later and really slowing
down the Hane process. So with this new one this year we
were able to hay in half the time that we've been in the last few years so it's
allowing our technicians to get the hane completed and move on and do other
things to support the research that happens at the farm.
We were able to purchase lumber to fix up many of our exterior areas for the cattle.
There's a little breeze in Palmer every now and then and since the 1922 goodness sakes.
probably that one too. But the 2022 windstorm that we had over the Christmas break and then
the subsequent ones end this entire December. We had a lot of damage to these exterior
small areas for them. So we needed to fix those up before we were able to get any animals at all.
So the middle one is kind of an area for
them to come in and stay warm. And the one on the upper right hand side is where their water is
going to be. We also welded a heater, a protector for the heater. That's the picture in the lower
we keep the water thawed in the winter time and the cows don't accidentally eat the heater
cord because they will. And then the really exciting thing that we're doing is the middle
bottom left picture. This is called a Callum Gate System, and this system is a feeding system
for our livestock nutrition researcher. And he's going to be able to put a collar on a cow,
and it has a microchip in it. That microchip-
is it hits a sensor on the door of one of the cow and gates and it opens only for that cow
and inside on a white side and the bins will be a food ration that's just designed for
that one cow. And so that what that allows is now you can have 10 cows and really doing 10
Fred Cow is not eating George Cow's food and messing up your experiment. So Fred eats Fred's Food
George eats George's, food everybody's happy and
The cows are able to have that focus
And they're eating only what's prescribed for them and only of the amount that they are allowed
They don't get to go and graze from everyone else's literally
The exciting thing about this is this Calengate system.
If you see the picture in the bottom, this was taken just last week.
We have buried posts and those metal posts are going to be
the corners.
We'll be building a shed around all of that.
And we have a machine that we also spend with this money.
I'll show you later in slides that we'll be working inside that to deliver those food
rations to the individual cattle.
And it will all stay within that building.
So we're building a building around the Kalingate system.
And um, it was such a great opportunity that fish and game who also have research on our
nutrition program. They really like the Calangate idea.
They bought one themselves. So our our farm staff in
were able to install both one for our research and then also for
Fish and Game Research as well.
So they'll be doing the same thing but it's not going to be cows. It'll
be rain.
It will be caribou.
So it is very exciting.
Our forestry research at end.
It's really important that we understand that
we're doing forestry research because the
circumpolar north holds the space for the
boreal forest and the borea forest is the
largest terrestrial ecosystem on earth, full
stop, which is a very big deal for
the need for research, because this is not a
research, but this is a circumpolar research because the boreal forest is
a circular polar ecosystem. So the work that we're doing in Fairbanks can be
applied across the circumpolar north with our, if we are not already
partnering, we could be partnering with others. And so it's very exciting the
So the picture in the top middle this is our one of our professors. This is Dr.
Santosh Panda. Dr Panda is a
fantastic researcher who has lots of
grant funding coming in and he is really
working on
using satellite imagery
ground truthing that imagery for forest and then amplifying that into a model.
And then that model is showing healthy forest versus unhealthy forest.
He's able to share that Model then with BLM and our forestry folks in state so that as
a fire begins to build, a Fire will take a path of least resistance.
more likely attack the unhealthy forest and move in that pathway
versus the healthy forest. So what it's allowing is
this model just using satellite imagery, we don't need boots on the ground
in the middle of somewhere else but
With that imagery, BLM is able to use this model
to predict movement of fires
and then be able
to forewarn communities
or prepare communities
as it looks like it might be heading toward them.
That's one application of the work
that he's doing on healthy forests
and using satellite imagery
because it is a huge space
and we can't all have boots on the ground.
The middle photo is a picture that's a moisture sensor.
It is put into a tree and then it's monitored the moisture.
Water cycling through the boreal forest is the largest movement of water in the
Circumpolar North. We think it's oceans and it is not. It is actually the
trees during transpiration.
It's very exciting. The work that's being done by Dr. Jesse Young Robertson and her
team and lab because what they're able to do is they are able
from a much broader perspective through drought.
And she was able to do proof of concept of this two years
ago when Denali National Park allowed
her team to some research plots in the preserve.
You can see in the upper right hand corner, that is bark beetle damage there on a spruce.
And what they started noticing is that bark, beetle, like fire and any pest is going to attack and really.
gather a lot of momentum in a sick tree, in an unhealthy tree.
And what makes the tree most unhealthy in their research
they've found is actually water.
That's the number one indicator of health in the trees.
What they were able to watch is a beetle bark infestation
come up through almost the pinch point and see and predict it
tree moisture. And so it's a really great opportunity to see forest health tied to moisture and
on a global perspective.
The last photo is one of our researchers, Dr. Jan Daw.
She works in the One Tree program, which is a really huge applied research group that
truly is the manifestation of the land grant university.
K-12 curriculum developed on what happens to that tree throughout its life cycle throughout
a year, just an annual cycle, but then also its entire growth cycle.
Looking at it for product purposes, for economic development opportunities and all of that.
So the work that they're doing right now with birch tapping is they are doing a terroir
flavor of place, much like wine, it tastes different in different places it
grows. It's been shown that lots of things are like that and we know that
birch is similar and so now to define that, and see what it is, what had to
happen before we could even start any of this birched syrup research is we had
to come up with a vocabulary to talk about birsh syrup. Flavor.
So, that has actually already happened and now there is a tasting lexicon for birch syrup.
And there's one for avocados and olive oil and wine and maple syrup and lots of different
things.
But now we also have a lexicons for burch syrup that started with us, with this work and that
in different languages, but the same concept of the term.
So the work is very important in a new and emerging industry,
as birch syrup becomes more and more popular in the state
of Alaska as an entrepreneurial opportunity.
Director Anderson, before you leave this,
speaking forestry and the UAV, the,
Has any of that been shared with DNR related
to their carbon sequestration project?
Through the chair, thank you for that question.
That's excellent.
Yes, and we have a new forestry faculty member
who just came on,
and one of the things that she worked on prior
to her work with us,
and I think this is a direction
that her research will continue,
is working with forestry
trying to, sorry, and also with Yukon Flats area,
wanting to designate for fire protection area
for carbon sequestration.
So protecting a forested area from fire
and managing it that way
because that's valuable forest
for Carbon sequestrations purposes.
Yes, there is satellite imagery that's being used for that.
Models being developed to run through the supercomputer
to figure out all the magic that is, that
is beyond me at this point.
But the really good news is that, yes, we
are looking into the opportunities
for carbon sequestration at a global level
with the boreal forest in mind.
Thank you for the question.
Agricultural research is very exciting.
In the upper right-hand corner, you see that's a drone shot.
In Fairbanks of our plots, those are grains.
I know that that is what those.
So we have barley, wheat, oats, and canola in those,
and you can see how we plant those they are very close together.
We try to be as efficient as possible.
And this is great because it allows for a lot of opportunity
to truly compare one variety to the other.
They're as close together as possible so that they're in
that same microclimate as much as we can.
We now have a small grain speeder as I mentioned last year and that's part of the governor's funding that went to support that work.
And so these are his plots that he's working on here.
And I'll talk about a super exciting thing that hes doing now.
But you can see next to it, this is an example of some of his work we have in the middle.
uh... remag it is a huge pest for us and they really like
vegetables that grow very well here in alaska
and so
uh this particular research project um...
was a little snarky i think and and it's kind of fun
uh one of our researchers we work on cover cropping systems
Our soil scientist is working on cover cropping systems and everybody sells all the virtues of cover crops
It's great, but our pest management folks said wait a second if you're
growing
radishes
in as a
Potential cover crop or you are growing mustard as the potential cover-crop or whatever it is
are you actually attracting root maggots to
your cover cropping system, which then would go into your horticulture system.
Yes, your croping system and so it wasn't snarky,
but I think it's kind of funny because it like as you know in polymer you look at these plots over
here and they're gorgeous and their cover crops and there are all different varieties of things
and it is beautiful and then you'll look over here, and a bunch of cabbage and few cover
really attracting good insects, right, the good ones,
or are they, or aunt, are
they attracting room agates as well?
And so we'll see the jury's still out at this point.
We've only had one season of it,
but it's actually great research
because our growers need to know this.
And that's the type of research we do.
We do very practical, very pragmatic,
very applied research.
And we work directly with our producers around the state.
Next to that is a really beautiful picture of some alfalfa.
We have an alfa trial going on now that's happening with our soil scientist.
We are wanting a good alFalfA.
It's an excellent forage opportunity to cut, is hay, and feed to our livestock.
It is also very good for the soil.
In the lower 48, alfalfa is oftentimes grown almost as a perennial.
You plant it and then you can harvest it for many years after and cut multiple times a year.
not so much. However, on our Fairbanks farm, we do have a plot that has this five years old,
which is really exciting, and there are sections of it that have been cut three times a year,
and it still keeps coming back. So it's very exciting. Now we're trying, our soil scientist
is collaborating with researchers in the lower 48 who are doing variety work on alfalfa,
helping us find a cold tolerant alfalfa that might be a better answer for us here in Alaska.
Answering that question then directly feeds into livestock production and a more stable
opportunity to feed that livestock.
food system in Alaska. And in order to increase our livestock, we have to have food for them to eat.
And so the South Alpha is a great opportunity for that. On the far left upper hand corner,
it's very exciting. Yes, that is Kelp.
And why in the heck are you showing this, Jody? That's a
great question. Thank you for asking. That is
Just like in the upper right hand corner,
that's a variety trial.
And what's happening now that we have
mariculture farms, we've have kelp farms.
They're in different environments
and is a sugar kelp right for that bay
or is the ribbon kelt better for the bay
or a bull keilt better that bae.
And right now,
nobody knows. So we're actually funding researchers who are doing variety trials,
light, salinity, and temperature are the three environmental conditions that they're doing
in a lab setting, as you can see like in this picture. But in order to advise our farmers,
There has to be an opportunity to understand this.
This is a collaboration with the College of Fisheries
and Oceanic Sciences at UAF.
And their researchers are doing this work.
Not my nerds, but their nerds.
And it's great because they are really coming up
with some great answers that they didn't have answers to before.
And there was no funding stream for variety trials.
However, it is crop.
did tweak it a little bit and sold it to USDA.
We are the only Mariculture Project in USDA hatch work
that's happening across the United States.
So there, that is exciting.
In the bottom left-hand corner is our beautiful greenhouse in Pink LED.
This is on the Trothietta campus at Arctic Health Building in Fairbanks.
This a combination of multiple studies of not only LED light, the correct...
end of the light spectrum that works the best for the biggest bang for your buck,
energy efficiency studies which are huge here in Alaska because if we are considering growing
throughout the year not only is heat critical but light is critical and energy is involved in both.
So having a valuable efficient lighting source that can also help the plants
the best way is really critical.
And they are just that pink.
It's not weird.
That's exactly what they look like.
It is great to be in Fairbanks in the winter time.
just once and then that's it but it's a beautiful color and you can see we're
also doing some hydroponic testing inside of our greenhouses and the tomatoes our
researcher is holding the shocking thing about these tomatoes is they taste
like tomatoes they don't taste like normal hydraponic vegetables they are
Once once they're measured and and evaluated in terms of data collection
Then the really great part about the tomatoes that are from this research is that they're
then donated to our culinary arts program and then they are able to work with really
fresh, delicious tasting, vegetables in their programming as well.
So it's a full circle concept.
Our soil scientist, Dr. Kaylee Gash, the one on the right in the picture with the two
women, she has taken upon herself to do soil testing in areas of the state that haven't
agricultural soil testing in a very focused way.
She's had over a thousand different individuals reach out to her and offer their soil.
She evaluates it and then moves it forward back to them for their own knowledge, but also for her into a database.
She is looking at the soil web.
So all of the living components of it, she's looking at the biology and also the chemistry within that soil.
So it's a really exciting project that's giving us a better picture of workable soils across the state.
Can kelp be used as an effective fertilizer in Alaska?
This is our first year study, so we don't have any definitive data, but so far,
so good. This a collaboration project with Washington State University.
Dr. Erin Oliver is a Northwest climate scholar from Washington state.
She doesn't work in Washington states. She's never met.
the her colleagues at Washington state she works with us in Palmer the whole
purpose of this program is to help us help facilitate more research
agricultural research in Alaska in areas that we just can't meet so she
decided to evaluate whether kelp waste
can be used as a fertilizer.
She's working directly with Prince William Sound.
They gave her an intern, a student intern for the summer,
and so they were able to get agricultural intern research
opportunities all summer.
And Erin grew carrots.
That's all she grew.
But she was very excited, and she
was really pleased with the results so far.
Stay tuned, we'll tell you what's up.
The exciting news about that and how does that reach us
at the Arctic level, at a circumpolar level
is that we're kind of the last ones at
the table when it comes to kelp research
and farming in that industry.
So.
Many of our circular polar neighbors are already using these products and so now we're establishing
that can they be used in Alaska and if so, what do we need to do with them beyond washing
them, drying them?
How do you apply them.
Those simple questions are the ones that we are answering now.
Do you ever work with, you know, the Department of Natural Resources has soil that, or land,
that the occasion will put up for agricultural land.
Are you engaged in testing that soil so that
the purchaser is informed about the qualities?
Through the chair, thank you for that. That was a very good question.
And that isn't really our department.
NRCS is responsible for soil testing across the United States, and we have offices throughout
the state of Alaska.
the the true soil analysis and they do the write-up and
they offer that analysis, and it's available to the public. So
It's it out there, but we we do not do that directly. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.
Thank You. Senator Kawasaki. Yeah, thank you on this research. How much of this
research comes from the University deciding this is something we want to
Department of Agriculture, and that you needed
as some sort of an amendment to a grant proposal.
Can you tell me how much is guided by federal requests?
Absolutely, through the chair.
Thank you, Senator Kawasaki, yes.
I don't have a statistic to give you
but I'll make one up on the spot.
As all good two statistics are,
well over 60% of our research is driven by our producers.
And so it's our relationships with our
producers where we're working together to solve problems as we move forward.
Then I would say probably 30%
of what's left is going to come from agencies with questions in state.
And then maybe I would say very little of it is driven by a question that USDA has asked us.
So that leaves 10% of who knows, but I
would that 10 percent falls into the areas of expertise of our researchers and based on
kind of anticipating questions that producers may have and then
that research becomes
the
opportunity to then engage with producers and get a more informed research question
Follow-up. Yes folks. Yeah, and so
you know the
the new food pyramid there's a new Food Pyramid that came out recently and I still don't understand what it means, but
one of the things
Besides the big Costco turkey in the front,
it has like green beans in a can.
Does that, so now there's like a new,
say that hasn't been changed in 30 years
or something like that.
So this is a knew set of potential changes coming
to what producers want to produce,
what I imagine what stores can buy,
what, you know, it guides a lot.
So has that changed any research at this point,
or do you think it will in future?
Thank you for that question and no
To be very honest, it's so new
We are not agile enough with our funding to be able to respond to something that came out a couple months ago
So at this point no, I
believe that
until
Until our state begins to invest more in buying
Our state institutions invest in buying more local foods.
I don't think that that's ever going to fall back on us
to change what we're doing to meet the needs of that upside down triangle.
Once the state positively stated,
once the State does start purchasing local grown products
for the purchase by the state, I think that that very well could drive a direction.
But many of the things that we're producing are already on that pyramid.
In the right way, in the great quantity, it's just the processing of it that.
I think is the more key focus, and that isn't up to our researchers' side of things.
That's much more of the post-harvest production and the
post harvest industry. Thank you.
So, we are members of the Circumpolar Ag Association, and this past year we participated and very strongly participated in the 12th Circumpler Agriculture Conference in Trumps of Norway in September.
And I want to make a special thanks to our chair, Senator Giesel, for your attendance.
I really do appreciate the time and the energy that you put into learning more about circumppler agriculture.
As you can see we had a great group of participants and I will also brag that Alaska brought a lot of folks and we made some of the other closer.
countries feel weird because there were so many Alaskans and so that made me very happy
because I'm all about making people feel real weird. And so not only did we participate
but we also presented, we had multiple presentations and we were able to really
really collaborate and talk with researchers who are doing so many similar
things, they just happen to be in a different language many times. The
It makes so much sense because we have so
much in common, our light issues are similar,
our temperature issues, are
similar. Our pest issues
are similiar. The varieties of food that we can
successfully grow are almost exactly identical.
And so learning, I feel that it's very important that
we learn how others are successful so that
we may be incorporate some of those ideas into
work we're doing, but also, you know, be better stewards of the work that we are doing.
And so this work is very applicable, applicable excuse me, to the
In our livestock research, you'll see that there is a kelp harvester in the middle upper
picture. That kelp harvester, regardless of the type of kep that's being grown, there
is waste involved in keLp harvest. The ribbon will be cut and then grated, but beyond the cut,
Anywhere almost up to a whole foot they try to be more efficient
But of the ribbon itself plus the hold fast so there's almost a stem
But it's not called a STEM because it is algae, but
It's really it very interesting because that string because they have it out on string
That string is used again, and it has to get stripped
And that's all waste product.
So instead of checking it back in the ocean,
or throwing it, unfortunately, into a landfill
where we don't have enough space anyway,
what we're doing is trying to figure out
ways to use that waste.
And our livestock researcher, Dr. Jim Vineyard,
is working on just that question.
He is taking dry kelp product,
which you see in the bottom left-hand corner.
He's grinding it to a fine powder,
which is in our left corner,
and that material is what will be rationed out to the cows.
The idea is that
Growing in the ocean, it picks up a tremendous amount of micronutrients.
And those micronsutrans are the same micronesutrians that our livestock producers have to buy in a very heavy block form.
If we can figure out a small industry in Alaska using a waste product
and is beneficial to our cattle and other livestock, then we're going to use it.
and share that opportunity with our circumpolar friends.
So this work that Jim is doing is starting with beef cattle
and looking at, you know, true nutrition science.
He's going to figure out the right recipe when to the beef cattle need this material
the most, how often do they get it, all of those types of things.
And then he's also going start working with sheep and goats because small livestock is
very popular in Alaska and across the circumpolar north of course, but also then looking at
potentially. And so not only is it going to be waste from the
agriculture and the kelp farming industry, but also there will
be from harvesting of all of our seafood and that waste as
well. So he has a great relationship with our cattle
producers. We're getting cows donated.
So it saves us a tremendous amount of money.
Also, we're getting a lot of the kelp donated as well.
In fact, just last week, blue evolution just donated what will be dried down to approximately
400 pounds of both ribbon kelp and sugar kep.
So not only looking at just keplp as a whole, but looking the individual varieties of kellp
and what they offer in terms of nutrition.
Director Anderson, is salt an issue?
I mean, this stuff grows in the ocean.
Does it absorb a lot of salt?
And how do the animals, I
mean humans have to be careful, right?
How about animals?
High blood pressure?
Through the chair, thank you.
Yes, and it's more of an iodine issue.
iodine is a much bigger concern because iodine as a micronutrient it has a very
narrow range of happiness in a body anything below that line it it is
deficient anything above that magical very small window is toxicity and so
In fact, this material, if fed too much, to cattle can create an iodine toxicity.
It's a concern, especially in beef cattle, because that iodine goes into muscle structure,
which is what we eat when we beef.
It is important that we do this work and understand the right ratios and recipes
because we don't want to tell farmers, sure, if you get kelp just give it to your cows
because at a certain point they can actually become toxic. But salt, not so much of an issue,
the material we get is also been washed. Gotcha. Thank you. Yes.
On the right side is our small grains work and the work that Dr. Hassan is doing is fantastic.
These are two wheat seeds, you'll see in these Petri dishes.
In Gaul is wheat that is kind of the gold standard in Alaska.
plump large
beefy looking seeds
those wheat seeds are the result of the breeding program that we're working on in Fairbanks and
Please nerd out with me for a brief moment because we are going to go back to high school
Science class and this is a really important thing that's happening
Dr. Hassan has built a
doubled haploid genetic lab.
This genetic
lab takes pollen grains from the
anther, manipulates the pollen
grain that has half of the genetic
material, kind of freaks out the
pollen, it doubles its genetic
material. It makes an identical copy
of itself, and now it thinks it's a
plant. It has a full chromosome number. And then you end up making identical homozygous,
meaning they're exactly the same genetically. There's no weirdos all the way out from that
point forward. So this double haploid is happening for all of your major grains across the United
The reason it's a really big deal that we have this lab at the UAF campus and that it is a public lab.
Private industry is where these labs are found.
So, your seed companies are doing this work exactly like we're doing, but for a much larger audience.
emphatically, no private industry that would want to invest the time and energy it takes
to do genetic testing through this opportunity for cold soils.
So, the fact that we are a public institute in the Circumpolar North, who are able to
do breeding this way, is huge, because we're looking for characteristics that are supported
in The Circumpler North.
We're look for characteristics of short-growing season, cold soil and cold tolerant, and also
early maturing.
Those are things that no one cares about in private industry.
Those are characteristics that get kicked out of breeding programs.
So for us to have this is a huge step, not just for Alaska, but for the whole entire
circumpolar north. We'll also be able to rent space out in our expertise, which is
going to be good once everything kicks in.
And the reason that double haploid genetic testing and these labs are such a big deal
The way that traditionally genetic work was done is it takes from the very beginning to release of a grain, a new variety,
could go anywhere between 15 and 20 years, the timeline.
Modern, modern technology, not doubled haploid, but just using technology and our researcher
is doing growouts in our wintertime, in New Zealand, during their summertime.
So he's got two growing seasons that he is going to do everything, so he has kind of
shrunken everything down to about, he anticipates about a six to eight year release, which is
Because our farmers want this.
You saw the difference in those two grains in the previous picture, that's what we're
getting ready to do, higher productivity, bigger bang for the buck for our producers.
With this doubled haploid, you've cut out three years from the process.
So now we are looking at starting and ending easily within a five year time period.
because we are going to be able to more resilient and more flexible and
more able respond to the needs of our growers faster.
And so he is working on this with barley and wheat.
And also both of those are very,
there's very little work being done in doubled haploid world in barley in wheat,
so some of the things may also have some intellectual property opportunities.
Sorry, I went down a hole.
It makes me really excited.
At the Circumpolar Ag Conference,
we were able to visit one of their experiment stations
in Trumpsa, which is that horrible location there
next to the water with the barn.
Some of our folks that went with us,
I wasn't sure if I really should have a picture of Senator
or not, but I...
chose not to, but she was there and she's in lots of my pictures. But one of the things that
was very exciting for us was the Raspberry House. That was in late September and all those raspberries
were there. And it was all done up off the ground and espelied, so spread out kind of like wine.
vines or grape vines are for wine, so picking is very easy. You didn't bend
over, you didnít do anything. And they do a lot of research with regard to
berries there at that particular station. It was a really, really great experience.
I do and I volunteered us to be the host of the next
Circumpolar Ag Conference so please put it in your calendars.
We will have this the 29th through 31st of August
in 2028. We'll be hosting this at the Fairbanks campus.
We did host this years ago I believe it was in 2015
and they had it and gird wood and i said
we're going to have it in Fairbanks.
So it will be in fairbanks, and instead
of just getting ready for it as we do,
I decided that we would launch a ramp up, if you will,
to the conference itself, using the conferences
and opportunity for the entire campus,
for all of the university, for our land grant,
University of Alaska, to really
get excited and know that these are folks coming to us from the
Circumpler North and there's a lot of food system adjacent work happening
across campus. But because we're in our little silos and in
our colleges and and research areas, we don't know
that. And so it's it is huge.
We're doing a speaker series and we're
doing it for the next three years.
We started it this year.
We kicked it off.
We have one a month, and I say that.
And then if you look, you'll say,
Jody, there's two in March.
Yes, they are.
Also two, in April.
But we are catching up.
We really have good things.
The whole purpose, I told my researchers,
this is not you standing up talking about your research.
This is you talking
and giving us an opportunity to ask questions
and talk about ideas.
It's an idea sharing opportunity.
And so we have it at noon, it's available on Zoom
and we've been averaging 70 people per session.
that attend. We have a lot more that also collect or that we send the recording to
and we've had participants from Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands. Many participants
from Canada also are listening and participating in the conversation.
We had one just this Tuesday and it was just absolutely fantastic. And so
I wanted to share with you that not only are we having these talks, we're also talking
about, as you see Jan Daw, that's our one tree person, our birch syrup person.
We're all so have one of our forestry ecology researchers who's presenting.
And then the very last one feeds into next year's theme.
Our institute does and how it frames this work.
The very last one I'm very excited about
because Melissa Good, Dr. Good is with the Sea Grant program
and MAPS program in Kodiak,
and she reached out and said, can I please present?
And I said how about you present with Jim
because you guys are already working together.
So now all of next year,
Each of the speaker opportunities will be not people from our Institute,
but people who are adjacent to the work across campus doing these same conversations.
Then our third year, getting us ready for 2028,
that academic year we will have our producers.
being part of the conversation.
They're already participating in these as observers,
but we're wanting them to also be those presenting
to really get people talking and continue to talk
about what food systems look like in the circumpolar north
and how can we better work on that question?
as a whole campus that will not only respond
to the needs of Alaskans, but also our circumpolar friends.
That has triggered work that I am beginning to do.
And fortunately, we have an interim chancellor
who is very active in the Arctic world.
As you know, interim Chancellor Srega was the former ambassador
This is work that I have started because of our work with the Circumpolar Ag Conference.
The Circumpler Ag Association has wanted to be involved in more policy conversations.
We're not at the tables in Reykjavik for the annual meetings at that policy level.
And how can we not be talking about food?
Because this is a direction that we're wanting to go in,
I'm starting to work more in that world,
using the work that were doing at the Institute
and connecting us into these Arctic policy conversations.
So on the right, you'll see these four happy people
in the rain in Palmer at our farm.
This was right after Arctic encounter last year,
this last fall.
These are current ambassadors to the Arctic.
So we have Finland, Sweden, and Greenland, all represented in that photo.
And I met them and dragged them out and convinced them to come to
the farm.
The gentleman handing me his phone is Dr. Kenneth Go.
He is an agronomist from Greenland.
for the Arctic Council.
And because the kingdom of Denmark holds leadership there
for next two years, Kenneth is kind of the worker
be of that.
And having an agronomist in that position
and doing the work that I'm trying to do our institute is
doing and recognizing where Alaska sits in this
Chancellor Srega involved, we have the greatest opportunity
that we'll have in several years to get our feet in the door
and to have Arctic agriculture as part of the agriculture
conversation at the Arctic policy meetings.
So I will be working on holding a joint panel
with you Arctic President Lars and myself at the Arctic
encounter summit this April.
And so I know there'll be lots of our friends
from the circumpolar north there who attend.
And, so starting the conversation about increasing
the policy opportunities with regard to agriculture
is really exciting work that is kind of
my future work.
And so the reality is our funding request this year for our institute.
We were asked.
Our university was asked to add in our $3 million request that was last year's request.
And so OMB asked where the food security ask was.
So the Board of Regents added it.
It was accepted.
So we are in the red book on page 11.
We are asking for a $ 3 million operating budget increase.
It was approved by the Board of Regents, and it was not included in the governor's budget.
So the work that we're doing across the state and the
work our products across
the State that are then getting incorporated into our circumpolar conversations
improve and increase if we have more researchers answering these questions.
This week has been fascinating meeting with many of you and all of the other legislators we've been able to speak with,
and there are a long list of things people want us to do, and I appreciate it,
and can't do it if I don't have the funding that can hire those experts.
a livestock nutritionist, which is really exciting.
And the work he's doing is tremendous, and has the opportunity to reach beyond our borders.
But unfortunately, I only have one.
So that is our operating budget,
and please understand and respectfully, this is a tough year and I'm very aware of that.
But I do want to let you know that
We do valuable work and that we are a really good bang
for the buck and this is where our ask sits.
Director Anderson, before you go on this page,
you have a green crab.
I do.
I want you to talk about why the green
crab is there.
Well, first of all, it's an invasive species.
First of All, It's An Invasive Species.
Thank you.
Through the chair, I appreciate your.
observation of the ugly green crab. The green
crab is invasive. It is coming up the coast.
It's in Alaska.
It isn't far into Alaska, but it is here.
And it's a very serious concern on our coastlines.
And so with any invasive species,
we want to be on this as quickly as possible.
And we have folks within our institute who
are pest specialists, invasive pest specialist.
And they are working with Fish and Game.
see where we are with it and ideas of what can be done.
But because we have so much more warm water coming up
the coastline and the ocean.
pH is just right for these guys to come in without much problem and they're
really taking over. So in areas where they have become an infestation, they are a
huge problem, and we want to be proactive and not reactive to the situation.
So we're working on that. We only have...
One person, but they're definitely that's part of some of the things that they are working on.
You mentioned that there was some question about it being a food source.
Through the chair, they aren't human edible.
So, I mean, we don't have to be hungry enough to eat them I think is what the answer is.
Everything is edible!
these definitely don't really have a predator that likes them either. So in the
disposal opportunities, you know, that too could be put into the meal, if you will,
that could been fed to livestock. We're looking at that as a kind of a
a full circle opportunity but more importantly than the feed concept, it's just handling
this before it gets out of control and wrecks havoc with our very important
I appreciate your time and allowing me to share some of the amazing work that my folks
are doing and on behalf of The Institute, thank you so much and please know that I'm
available and if you have questions to email me and I'll get back to you as quickly as
possible and let you know what we can do.
Thank you.
I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.
All right. So that concludes our agenda for today.
Our next meeting will be next Thursday. That's February 19th.
And we're going to hear a presentation from Alaska Shadoop Network.
This is a company that tracks our marine vessels
with some amazing technology,
identifying the vessel who owns it,
what cargo is on it all along our coast.
And so they will be here presenting.
And, so at this time, the meeting will stand adjourned.
Let the record reflect.
The time is 2.43 p.m.