State works against farmers

This is a message to Gov. Sarah Palin.

Your picture appeared on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News Oct. 15. You were wearing the Alaska Grown patch, sporting the logo you are suing the farmers for.

While supporting more tax on oil and gas, you are suing the farmers who produce a sustainable product for the state. Not only are the farmers being sued for their interest in promoting Alaska Grown, but you recently appointed Franci Havemeister as director to the Division of Agriculture. The only qualification she brought to the job was that she was your high school buddy. You passed up many more qualified people to choose her.

I thought the last administration was bad about appointing good ol' boys. Is it good ol' girls now? Franci didn't even know what the Plant Materials Center was when she became director, and I notice that you have zeroed the Plant Materials Center out of the budget for next year. It happens to be the single most important source of quality seed stock in the state and the single most important resource for farmers.

Wow, you really know how to cripple the farming industry in this state! Suppose you “win” the lawsuit against the farmers who have done so much to support Alaska Grown and make it popular. Without help and support from the farmers, the logo will probably wither and die because we will promote something else and make it popular too. What a shame! I can't wait for the public to learn that the Division of Agriculture has sent and received 45,000 e-mails condemning or concerning Alaska Grown.

Matanuska Maid and the state are directly responsible 100 percent for the failure of dairy farmers at Point MacKenzie. Yet you spend hundreds of thousands of state dollars to save Mat Maid, even though it is selling mostly Outside milk. I hope that you wear your logo with pride, as you have already caused Alaska farmers much grief with your lawsuit. You can't strong-arm us if we choose to abandon the promotion of Alaska Grown, and the logo won't be the same even if you do “win” the lawsuit. The agricultural community has already suffered losses of about $100,000 in legal fees to defend the logo. That amount makes the division's efforts even smaller because the Division of Agriculture has done nothing for farmers, nor do I expect it ever to with the contentious climate that now exists.

River Bean

Arctic Organics

Palmer