Cordova, Third Community to Join Food, Energy and Water Usage Study

ACEP researcher Erin Whitney visited Cordova with Jen Schmidt of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) program. They conducted community interviews associated with their National Science Foundation grant, examining usage and linkages between food, energy, and water in remote Alaska communities. Interviewees included store owners, city officials, utility and water services representatives, fuel suppliers, fish processors, health clinic managers, and federal agencies, among others. This visit followed similar trips to Kongiganak and Tanana in the past month, also as part of the research project.

Other partners involved in the project include Daisy Huang, 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.

Image: Aerial view of Cordova, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.