advocacy, federal policy

Finding Hope Through Action

By Robbi Mixon, Executive Director & Rachel Lord, Advocacy & Policy Director

The Alaska Food Policy Council (AFPC) was notified last week—just one hour before a national press release—that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has terminated the Regional Food Business Center (RFBC) Program effective immediately, abruptly withdrawing millions of dollars from Alaska’s food and farm sector. AFPC has been leading the Alaska arm of the Islands and Remote Areas Regional Food Business Center, which was one of twelve national centers selected and announced with great fanfare by USDA in May 2023.

This is a blow to our entire food system. The RFBC was a catalytic opportunity to build capacity for small businesses across the state—from regional producers and processors to Indigenous-led food initiatives, to farmers markets and rural co-ops development. Its loss disrupts food security planning, economic development, and supply chain resilience in every region.

  • This decision hurts Alaska’s local food economy.

    Alaska’s Regional Food Business Center (RFBC) was designed to meet the real, identified needs of Alaska’s food and farm businesses—needs our producers and food leaders have been calling out for years. We took time to design an implementation plan that was community informed, place-based, and followed recommendations in numerous reports, including the recent Governor and Legislative task forces, along with AFPC’s own studies.

    This was an invaluable chance to operationalize recommendations with meaningful capital investments and training.

    Alaska’s geography, logistics, and community sizes create unique barriers to market access and business growth. This program was tailored to address those specific challenges. It was not just a funding stream—it was a strategic, statewide effort to build coordination, technical support, and long-term infrastructure across the food value chain.

  • This was never just about regranting—it was about strengthening the backbone of Alaska’s food economy.

    Food and farm entrepreneurs are asked to do it all: produce, package, market, comply, and compete. Alaska’s food entrepreneurs, producers, and processors are incredibly hardworking—but often lack time, capacity, and access to tailored resources. Our RFBC strategy recognized that reality—and aimed to surround businesses with the data, tools, compliance guidance, training, networking, and capital they need to thrive. We aimed to help them navigate opportunities, tap into strategic investments, and connect with skilled technical assistance across sectors.

    We worked closely with regional and rural partners to ensure the program respected local knowledge, aligned with existing efforts, and didn’t add burdens. We know these businesses are core to food security, economic development, and community resilience in Alaska. From Western Alaska’s reindeer economy to food manufacturers in the Railbelt and beyond, from direct market fishers and farmers to local food aggregation, this program was designed to uplift diverse businesses across Alaska. Those needs haven’t gone away.

  • The loss of funding directly disrupts meaningful, shovel-ready projects.

    With $1.4 million earmarked for technical assistance, AFPC and partners had prepared to launch transformative technical assistance to help food and farm businesses take the next steps towards reaching new and expanded food markets.  Training in the form of workshops, webinars, coaching, mentorship, apprenticeships, and peer-to-peer learning, our first slate of offerings was to include:

    • Business data and market analysis for food manufacturers

    • Compliance and capacity support meat production

    • Strategic planning and grant writing support for food system entrepreneurs

    • Farmer business training program to support small-scale farm businesses

    • Business planning and grant/ funding proposal creation

    • Farmer Cooperative development assistance

    • Food hubs, farmers markets, and rural produce markets development

    • Homemade food business development

    Additionally, AFPC had dedicated $1.6 million for subawards to over 50 food and farm businesses statewide through the “Business Builder” program, aimed at projects to build markets and expand business capacity.

    This wasn’t hypothetical planning—partners were ready to implement. Small businesses were preparing to apply.

  • The program’s termination is abrupt, unclear, and counter to the USDA’s Farmers First Policy Agenda

    Funds were frozen January 20, 2025, but we were not notified for weeks, with no meaningful explanation. The justification that these programs were “unsustainable” is inaccurate and ignores the innovative, systems-based solutions already in motion. This funding aligned with USDA’s own “Farmers First” principles—centering local leadership, regional coordination, and long-term business viability. For example:

    • Priority #1. Streamlining & Digitizing USDA Application Processes: We were specifically tasked with creating a streamlined and simple re-granting process that was Alaska-driven for food and farm businesses to take advantage of business development and market expansion opportunities.
    • Priority #5. Providing Small Family Farms With Greater Access to Markets and Infrastructure: This was the entire point of the RFBC. The funds were intended to go to farmers, fishers, and food businesses, both directly and in the form of technical assistance to support post-harvest market expansion and business development.
    • Priority #7. Enhancing Risk Management and Business Planning Tools: Again, this was woven into all of the RFBC. The Business Center we built included partners from lending agencies, the Small Business Development Center, and so many others that were all being brought into one space to streamline access and support small and medium-sized food and farm businesses to succeed.
    • Priority #9. Hosting Small Farmer Webinar and Educational Series: Yet again, this was woven into the RFBC. It was designed as a three-pronged approach that included direct funding to farm and food businesses, supported by educational opportunities to maximize that investment through technical assistance, and network building to create long-term sustainability across Alaska’s food and farm business community.

    The sudden freeze leaves our partners in limbo and undermines years of trust-building with USDA.

USDA Farmers First Agenda

Our mission—to advocate, inform, and connect for a stronger food system in Alaska—remains unchanged. We’re disappointed by this decision, but we’ll continue our work to support the producers, entrepreneurs, and communities that power Alaska’s food economy. The need is still there. So are we.

“Islands & Remote Foodways” by Valisa Higman depicts important foods from around our Regional Food Business Center.

We are indeed stronger together.