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Agricultural development in Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Carol E. Lewis,
Roger W. Pearson and
Wayne C. Thomas
Carol E. Lewis
Affiliation:
Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AL 99775–0080 USA
Roger W. Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AL 99775–0780 USA
Wayne C. Thomas
Affiliation:
Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AL 99775–0080 USA
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Abstract

Development during approximately 200 years of agricultural activity in Alaska has been varied and generally inadequate. Four stages are here identified. During the period from Russian and early American colonization to the late 1880s production was largely for personal consumption. From 1898 to World War II federal intervention stimulated local commercial agriculture, and from the late 1940s to the late 1960s commercial production expanded. Since then a state- supported strategy to develop an export-based agriculture has been tried, but implementation has not been completed. Alaska remains a frontier which has yet to find a workable manner in which to implement a strategy for its agriculture.

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Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 23 , Issue 147 , September 1987, pp. 673 - 682
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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