By Evan Cutler
Special to the Turnagain Times
Girdwood has some wonderful summer gardens and a few small, private greenhouses. Yet this is not where Girdwood really gets its “fresh” food.
Currently, the local grocery, restaurants, and people of Girdwood are supplied produce year- round from all over the planet.
Most of this produce, however, is not really fresh, having been harvested weeks, sometimes even months earlier. This food was harvested before it was ripe, to allow for shipping times, so it becomes ripe near arrival in Alaska. Its quality suffers because of that.
Most of what we eat is from places we cannot see or know—grown with toxic agri-business pesticides and other chemicals, fed and washed with often polluted water, and handled by people without access to modern hygiene facilities.
Imagine that we could do better than this! Imagine that Girdwood grew all or most of its own produce, so it was available fresh, year round.
The fact is that with relatively little effort, we could soon supply cost-competitive and quality superior fresh, organic, locally grown produce to replace what people in this valley already consume from around the world. Yes, this is actually a fact. We could.
Now expand that thought and imagine that our restaurants, grocery store, and consumers could order their produce online, even months ahead of time, and that we grew them exactly what they wanted, for delivery, fresh, exactly when they wanted it. Imagine that our restaurants can plan their menus and seasonal specials knowing what will be fresh and ready for them, and that they can fine-tune their purchases based on business trends.
Imagine that we get so good at this, that other Alaskans and tourists start coming to Girdwood to buy their fresh produce!
Imagine that we start with typical produce: lettuce, peppers, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, herbs, berries, melons, and the like.
Then imagine that we expand and produce fruit from trees, including apples, oranges, grapefruit, and the like.
This is all possible, and with your help, Sustainable Girdwood wants to make it real. The technology to do this already exists and is used around the world. It merely needs to be implemented here.
There are two major capital projects that need to be implemented to make this vision real in Girdwood. First, we need to develop the renewable energy infrastructure. The energy is here, it's free, and we simply have to tap it. Tapping it will pay for itself. Second, we need a powered greenhouse facility to actually grow and process the food year round. It's been done elsewhere, and we simply need to do it here.
There are a series of steps we need to take to achieve these two capital projects, but the path is clearly discernable, and we believe there is lots of support available to get them accomplished.
Once we accomplish these two goals, both projects will be sustainable at lower cost than what we currently pay for power and food.
Sustainable Girdwood is actively and steadily working on these goals. One crucial step we are making progress on is the design and funding of a Girdwood Business & Community Produce Consumption Survey, to be conducted this January through May. Based on what we learn from that, we will begin designing the greenhouse so as to grow 80 percent of the produce consumed here.
Alyeska Resort owner John Byrne has already pledged $1,000, or one-quarter of the funding we need as a matching grant for this survey project.
Also, the University of Alaska Anchorage has pledged to accept tax-deductible donations on our behalf, and help with administration of our project funds.
We have submitted a matching request to Girdwood 2020, and will soon be appealing to the Girdwood Rotary and Lions Clubs for support as well.
You are invited to our next public meeting, 4-6 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Girdwood Community Center (the big room next to the library. There UAA and Sustainable Girdwood will update the community on the current progress and efforts on these goals.
In an upcoming issue of the Turnagain Times, I'll share more information on the survey, and let you know how you can help with it.
Together, we can take some giant steps to making Girdwood a model of sustainability. In the long run, these efforts will pay for themselves. By doing this work now, we will create lasting rewards in terms of local job creation and lower food and energy costs for consumers and businesses.
Evan Cutler is a facilitator for Sustainable Girdwood. For more information on joining or supporting Sustainable Girdwood, email him at evanalaska@aol.com.
