Palin supplants ag board; Mat Maid could find new life

June 19, 2007

By Will Elliott/Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Matanuska Maid, Alaska's largest commercial dairy, isn't out to pasture yet.

Responding to a decision last week by the state Creamery Board to shut down the dairy, Gov. Sarah Palin on Sunday dismissed the entire state Board of Agriculture and Conservation, which oversees the Creamery Board. She announced a new board Monday made up of Mat-Su Valley residents. The Creamery Board announced last week it would shut Mat Maid and not accept $600,000 in state money to keep its operation running while it searched for alternatives to closing the dairy. Following the closure announcement, Palin and other state lawmakers expressed concern over a decision that leaves Valley dairy farmers less than a month to find new markets for their products.

New board member and Wasilla realtor Kristan Cole has no doubt why she was chosen as one of the new state Board of Agriculture and Conservation members.

&#8220The governor's looking for new energy,” Cole said. &#8220I was on the board of agriculture 15 years ago when the creamery was making money. How we got from there to here I think both the governor and the farmers would like to know.”

Previous board members couldn't answer that question, Cole said.

&#8220They've chosen not to give [Palin] the answers she and the farmers deserve, and that's why she's taking this drastic action,” Cole said. &#8220Something is not right, and we owe the farmers and the people of this state better answers than we're being given.”

Creamery board chair Mac Carter was unreachable for comment Monday.

Ed Kern of Palmer, one of the dismissed state board members, also sits on the creamery board, a posting he said he plans to resign.

Kern agreed the former ag board and governor had their differences, but described the character of the dismissal differently.

&#8220It's something that normally occurs every four years when you get a new governor,” Kern said of appointing new members to state governing boards. &#8220When a new governor comes in, they'll want to have people who think the same as they do. I'm moving on.”

Palin was out of town Monday, but in a prepared statement says the former board members weren't dismissed because they did not share her views, but because they were not considering all the options for the dairy's survival.

&#8220With all due respect to the service that those board members provided the state, I think it's time for some new ideas,” she says.

Those ideas are needed because the state-owned dairy is losing money. Mat Maid CEO Joe Van Treeck attributes the failing business model to competition from large outside producers and the extra costs of making milk in Alaska. Van Treeck endorsed closing the dairy because of those concerns.

Van Treeck could not be reached for comment Monday, but Kern agreed with his assessment.

&#8220The industry has lots of problems,” Kern said. The expense, complications and small market for raising dairy cows in Alaska means producers will always be undersold by outside mega farms.

Competing with big business in a race to the bottom isn't the only option, a number of Valley farmers say.

At a Friday rally in Palmer attended by dairy farmers and the governor, Bob Havemeister urged Mat Maid to think and act like a small, homegrown dairy.

&#8220All we need is a nice little plant here in the Palmer area that will handle fluid milk, period,” he said.

Palin seconded those remarks, saying the dairy should look into niche markets.

Kern is skeptical of those approaches.

&#8220They've been talking about that for a long time and it's yet to be seen,” he said.

Mat Maid eventually may have to shut down, Palin says. But she is still hopeful a new board can find a way around that.

The state Board of Agriculture and Conservation oversees agricultural activities across the state. The previous board was comprised of members from around Alaska, including Kodiak, Fairbanks and the Kenai. The new board is made up exclusively of Valley residents, all but one of whom are farmers.

Agriculturists Don McLean, Ray DePriest, Ralph Carney, John Shirack, Ben VanderWeele and Wayne Brost join Cole on the volunteer board.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.