When Manufacturing Meets Food Sovereignty: What Typhoon Halong Taught Alaska

When Typhoon Halong tore through the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta this fall, it didn’t just

destroy property — it wiped out freezers full of smoked fish, berry caches, and dried meat that families depend on through the winter. For many Alaska Native communities, those losses aren’t just about food. They represent centuries of knowledge, tradition, and self-reliance.

As the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium stepped up to organize relief — collecting and redistributing traditional foods from across the state — it became clear that Alaska’s food system is still fragile.

And that fragility is a manufacturing problem, too.

Beyond Recovery: Building Resilience

When we talk about “Made in Alaska,” we often think about product labels or packaging. But manufacturing is also infrastructure — the ability to process, store, and move goods locally when larger systems fail.

Every year, storms like Halong remind us that Alaska’s supply chains stretch thin. Roads wash out. Barges can’t run. Air freight gets delayed. In rural regions, that can mean weeks without access to essential supplies — including traditional foods.

Imagine if more of our communities had:

• Modular cold storage systems that can operate off-grid.

• Local packaging and freeze-drying capacity to preserve seasonal harvests.

• Small-scale manufacturing hubs that process fish, berries, and game into shelf-stable goods.

Those are all manufacturing solutions — and they’re well within Alaska’s reach.

“This isn’t just about food; it’s about sovereignty,” says AKMA Co-Founder Megan Militello. “When we can process and store what we grow, harvest, and catch right here, we’re building real independence.”

Where Manufacturing Fits In

Manufacturing can bridge the gap between emergency response and long-term resilience:

• Food processors and packagers can collaborate with tribal organizations to expand rural dehydration, canning, or freeze-drying facilities.

• Logistics and cold chain innovators can help design mobile or solar-powered systems for remote villages.

• Material suppliers and builders can support resilient community hubs that combine workspace, storage, and processing under one roof.

This is the kind of cross-sector problem Alaska manufacturers are uniquely built to solve — one that connects food, energy, and community infrastructure.

Why It Matters

What happened after Typhoon Halong is a lesson in both vulnerability and strength. Alaskans came together — sharing traditional foods, skills, and resources — to take care of one another. Now, the next step is ensuring we have the systemsto support that kind of resilience every day, not just in disaster.

“Manufacturing isn’t just about products. It’s about capacity — the ability to make what we need, when we need it,” says AKMA Co-Founder Lacey Ernandes. “That’s how Alaska stays strong.”

Get Involved

AKMA is gathering stories, ideas, and examples from members who are working to strengthen Alaska’s food systems — from freeze-dried products to community kitchens and modular cold storage.

📩 Share your story or project idea: connect@akmfg.org📍Join AKMA.

Together, we can build a manufacturing network that supports Alaska’s most powerful resource — its people.

📖 Source: Yereth Rosen, “Alaska typhoon victims’ losses of traditional foods go beyond dollar values,” News From The States, Oct 31 2025.Read the full article →