Politicians play dodgeball as ag industry bleeds

The state and Mat-Su Chapter of the Alaska Farm Bureau seem no closer to settling a lawsuit hobbling an already shaky agriculture industry.

The Alaska Grown logo — the familiar, friendly green, yellow and blue emblem — should be fused to a large playground ball as every politician in the state is playing dodgeball with it.

The issue is ownership of the logo — who can use and profit from its use.

Few people outside the ag industry seem to understand the fierce tug-of-war over the logo. It's not surprising. There's been plenty of misinformation and accusations flying around.

There is also some agreement.

In the 1980s, a group of Alaska farmers and ranchers, and employees from various state and federal agencies, met to brainstorm ways to promote Alaska agriculture. Out of that meeting came the Alaska Grown logo, trademarked in 1985.

The agreement ends there.

Some say the state was chosen as caretaker of the logo. It was the state's job to ensure farm products bearing the logo are indeed Alaska grown. Some say the state was granted the logo itself. The state's lawsuit was filed after the Mat-Su Farm Bureau chapter applied for federal trademark rights to the logo. While this incensed folks at the state Division of Agriculture, the Farm Bureau group argues it only made the application when the division failed to police knock-offs of the logo. A division representative has denied that charge, claiming the chapter was impatient in its demands, and the state was dealing with illegal distributors.

At stake is a tidy sum of money earned — and I do mean earned — by the Mat-Su chapter and future income based on sales of non-food items bearing the logo.

When I say “tidy,” that's by modest standards. Mat-Su Farm Bureau brought in a record gross profit of more than $65,000 at the recent Alaska State Fair in Palmer. A recent injunction forced the Farm Bureau chapter to turn over its profits because the chapter is allegedly making money on a logo it does not own. Instead, the state thinks it should have money it did not earn.

Despite some posturing and the trademark application, the Alaska Farm Bureau makes no particular claim on the Alaska Grown logo. The Mat-Su chapter maintains it has the same claim to the logo as any of the other farm groups in the state. Its purpose for filing for the trademark was to protect the logo from those who would profit from it. The chapter is a nonprofit and uses funds earned to benefit the industry. It sells Alaska Grown T-shirts and sweatshirts to raise money for agricultural marketing efforts, farmland preservation, agricultural literacy and scholarships.

Even folks at the Division of Agriculture would tell you the state spends less than it would like for ag marketing and education.

It makes sense for the state to ensure any other use of the logo is restricted to that which promotes Alaska agriculture. It doesn't make sense for the state, through endless legal wrangling, to financially crush a farm organization that has been working hard — perhaps harder than the state itself — to promote local agriculture. It is counterproductive to a struggling industry and smacks of vindictiveness.

The state has wasted thousands of dollars it could have used to promote agriculture, help the dairy industry or bolster agricultural literacy. The chapter has spent thousands of dollars it could ill afford and is threatened with loss of it profits from the Alaska Grown sales for years past — money already spent on the promotion of agriculture and defense of the lawsuit.

In the face of this travesty, the politicians — from the governor on down — dodge the ball, letting lawyers pass it back and forth instead of intervening with a just and reasonable solution outside the courtroom. Without such intervention, this wanton waste of resources will become another of the disasters that have plagued Alaska's agriculture.

Victoria Naegele is director of Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom and a member of the Mat-Su Chapter of the Alaska Farm Bureau. She can be reached at akaitc@alaskafb.org. Alaska AITC benefits from grants from the Alaska Division of Agriculture and donations from the Mat-Su Farm Bureau. Alaska AITC is a project of the Alaska Farm Bureau.