Farm Bureau Looks to Guard ‘Alaska Grown’ Logo

By Margaret Bauman, Alaska Journal of Commerce, Anchorage

Oct. 30–Future use of the state’s Alaska Grown logo is expected to be an issue when the Alaska Farm Bureau holds its annual meeting Nov. 11 at the Lake Lucille Inn in Wasilla, said Karen Olson, executive director of the Farm Bureau’s Mat-Su chapter.

The logo has been in use for about two decades, and is used to identify Alaska-grown vegetables and fruits. It has also been used on T-shirts sold as a fund-raiser by the Mat-Su chapter at the Alaska State Fair at Palmer.

According to Olson, use of the logo has been somewhat of a partnership between the Mat-Su chapter and the state.

The Farm Bureau, a national organization, is composed of independent nongovernment volunteer organizations of farm families who work together to promote educational improvements and economic opportunity. Lately, though, T-shirts displaying a similar logo and the words “Alaska Grown” have been sold by nonfarm-related entities, including an Anchorage souvenir shop, prompting the ire of Farm Bureau members, Olson said.

Larry DeVilbiss, the state’s director of agriculture, said his office has shut down two black market operations, one in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks, that were using the logo without permission on T-shirts and sweatshirts. DeVilbiss said the logo is registered by his department with the state and that last spring his department applied for a federal trademark on the logo.

“In the process, we found out the Mat-Su chapter had already applied for the federal trademark,” he said.

DeVilbiss, himself a member of the Farm Bureau, said he felt his department had adopted polities which were quite liberal for use of the logo by farmers. Farmers may apply for a permit to use the logo on their Alaska grown products, and are then responsible for controlling the quality of the products they sell.

DeVilbiss said the department’s current policy is to allow the logo to be used on Alaska grown products ranging from farm produce to wild berries and wood products from timber grown in Alaska. “We allow wild berries, birch syrup, wood products grown in Alaska,” he said. The logo may also be used by farm agencies on clothing.

Olson acknowledged that the Mat-Su chapter of the Farm Bureau grossed about $90,000 on Alaska Grown T-shirts sold at the state fair in Palmer. Olson said concern arose when some people said they could get a similar shirt at a much cheaper price.

Farmers attending the annual meeting will be surveyed to see how they feel the logo should be used in the future, and results of that poll will be given to the Alaska Department of Agriculture, Olson said.

Also on the agenda is the proposed Alaska-Hawaii Title to the 2007 Farm Bill, which will be sent to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, if the voting delegation approves it. The title would provide a cost-share-type of reimbursement to farmers and ranchers in Alaska and Hawaii to address higher costs in both states due to being “geographically disadvantaged.”

The Alaska-Hawaii section calls for payments to be paid to farmers for land clearing, berm removal and irrigation development, and for transportation costs for distances of more than 40 miles. The reimbursement rate would be based on the cost-of-living allowance paid to federal employees in both states.

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