11-08-2011, 02:16 PM
quote:
Originally posted by tada
I heard Alaska was great for veggies like brocoli and cabbage with the cool sunny weather. I heard they don't have much of meat section because of all the meat on the hoof running around??
The Mat-Su Valley is Alaska's only bread basket, and is home to those huge cabbages that you may have seen on TV grown under the midnight sun in Alaska's unique environment. Unfortunately Mat-Su actually generates very little food, and Alaskans eat very little cabbage, leaving Alaska at the whim of exporters to feed us. Most people don't realize that Alaska is over a half million square miles and if superimposed over the lower 48, Alaska would stretch from Florida to California and even jut into Canada. Alaska has more shoreline than the other 49 states combined. Because of the huge size of the state, Mat-Su is nearly as far away from Juneau as Seattle, and food cannot be barged or trucked from Mat-Su to Juneau, therefore the food grown in Alaska is more expensive to us than food imported from further away. Most people from the lower 49 have the misconception that we can just walk outside of our homes and shoot animals to eat, much like people have the misconception that in Hawaii you can just walk outside of your home and shoot wild pigs. Yes, it's possible. It's not practical. In many areas you have to sign up for, and win a lottery to get the opportunity to purchase a hunting tag. We share our resources with many thousands of wolves, bears, and other predators that need to eat too.