Researchers Explore Community Food, Water and Energy Usage

ACEP researcher Daisy Huang and Institute of Social and Economic Research faculty member Jen Schmidt will travel to Tanana next week for a National Science Foundation project, "Coupling infrastructure improvements to food-energy-water system dynamics in small cold region communities: MicroFEWs."

Huang and Schmidt will meet with community members who operate, manage or make decisions about food, energy and water for the community. With the community's input, they will begin the process of collecting baseline data on food, energy and water usage. Tanana is the first community to be visited in this study. Other team members will make similar trips to Kongiganak, Cordova and Igiugig.

Other partners involved in the project include Erin Whitney, Chris Pike, Bill Schnabel, Rich Wies and Srijan Aggarwal of the University of Alaska Fairbanks; Aaron Dotson of UA Anchorage; Craig Gerlach and Henry Penn of the University of Calgary; and independent consultant Henry Huntington.

MicroFEWs is a four-year project with the ultimate goal of developing a novel systems approach to understanding the linkages between renewable energy use and its downstream impacts upon food, energy and water security in remote Arctic and sub-Arctic communities.

Photo: Salmon hang to dry on the banks of the Yukon River at Tanana.  Photo by Amanda Byrd/ACEP.