Buy Alaska. Shop the Valley. Alaska-made. Alaska-grown.

A recommendation in a November legislative audit to sell or dismantle Mat Maid was short-sighted. Fortunately, no legislators have stepped forward

calling for the state-owned milk corporations immediate demise.

Not only are five family farms in Mat-Su at stake, so are the Alaska barley and hay farms that produce the feed they buy for their cows, the veterinarians

and equipment dealers who depend on local farmers, and the 45 employees of the Mat Maid milk processing plant in Anchorage.

This is not an insignificant number, especially in the face of oilfield layoffs that could have a ripple effect on other Alaska businesses.

Alaska Division of Agriculture Director Rob Wells has stated returning Mat Maid to local, cooperative ownership is the ideal solution.

We agree, and so do many local dairy farmers. If even a few dairy farmers can make a go of it on Point MacKenzie or other Valley farms, that would boost Mat Maids local milk content, which probably would boost sales as well.

Most Alaskans are willing and want to support local industry, and having real, local milk that is days fresher than the imported variety is a real selling point for dairy products. We hope Alaska farmers and those who aspire to farm can take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the upcoming Point MacKenzie land sales. It would take the support of local banks and lenders, too, as well as a commitment from consumers to buy Alaskan-produced milk. Giving some financial breaks to those who want to dairy makes sense, as long as the requirements dont go overboard, which helped result in the disastrous bankruptcy of farms in the first Point MacKenzie land sale.

The alternative to keeping Mat Maid running is the loss of family farms and our utter reliance on milk imported from Washington. Its our choice to make.

Frontiersman