Uncommon Knowledge
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Some 36 percent of Alaska residents would support the state breaking away from the United States and becoming a fully independent nation, according to a new poll.
The result made Alaskans the most likely to support their state seceding from the Union, with the result substantially above the national average of 23 percent. The survey of 35,307 U.S. adults was conducted by YouGov between February 2 and 5. Those questioned were asked whether they would “support your state seceding from the U.S.?”
The integrity of the U.S. has been the subject of intense debate amidst aggressive political partisanship, which saw the 2020 presidential election result contested by the losing candidate for the first time in modern American history.
In February 2023, House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested there could be a”national divorce” between Republican and Democratic states resulting in almost all powers stripped from the federal government and devolved to the state level.
The YouGov survey found that across the U.S., 23 percent of adult Americans would back their state leaving the American Union, versus 51 percent who would be actively opposed and 27 percent unsure. Notably, the result differed substantially by party, with 29 percent of Republicans wanting the state they lived in to become independent against 46 percent opposed. For Democrats, just 21 percent said they would back their state leaving the U.S., with 51 percent actively opposed.
After Alaska, the states with the highest proportion of adults supporting independence were Texas at 31 percent, followed by California at 29 percent, and New York and Oklahoma each at 28 percent. By contrast, just 13 percent of those living in Minnesota wanted the state to secede from the U.S., along with 14 percent each of those living in Ohio, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
The Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) was founded in the 1970s to campaign for a referendum on the state becoming fully independent and became a recognized political party under state regulations in 1984. It received its strongest electoral performance in the 1994 Alaska gubernatorial election, when it polled 13 percent of the vote coming a clear third behind the Republicans at 40.8 percent and the Democrats at 41.1 percent, though this was very much a high watermark and the party received less than one percent of the vote in the 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial elections.
Along with a referendum, the party advocates the abolition of all property and income taxes, supports “all efforts to curtail or eradicate abortion, euthanasia and infanticide” and opposes “the borrowing of money by government for any purposes other than for capital improvements.”
Earlier this month, Newsweek published an exclusive survey of 814 eligible voters in Texas, conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies online between February 1 and 3, which asked participants: “Should Texas be a state within the United States or should Texas be an independent country?”
In response, 23 percent opted for “an independent country,” and 67 percent wanted to remain part of the U.S., with the remaining 10 percent unsure.
Secessionist campaigners have also been active in New Hampshire where a Republican legislature introduced a bill to the state House of Representatives calling on the state to become fully independent should U.S. debt reach $40 trillion, up from the current level of $34 trillion.
Speaking to Newsweek, Carla Gericke, acting president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence, described secession from the United States as “an idea whose time has come and a reflection of the frustration everyone on the political spectrum is feeling.”
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
On a recent December afternoon, Soldotna farmer Taylor Lewis preps for a day of harvesting crops. She walks to a tray filled with ripe lettuce and snips a head of it by the stem.
It’s just one of about 900 plants that Taylor and her mother-in-law Jayme Lewis will harvest and process this week – despite freezing temperatures and slushy snow outside. That’s because the duo works for Edgy Veggie, an indoor farm that grows produce year round.
“In the summer, a lot of our business drops off because folks are gardening at home. But in the winter, they’re not, because it costs money to heat your greenhouse,” Jayme said. “It costs a lot of money to heat your greenhouse.”
The company is a hydroponic farm, meaning they grow plants without soil. Hydroponic systems recycle and reuse nutrient-filled water, which minimizes waste. Specially made lighting and climate controlled conditions make it possible for Edgy Veggie to grow indoors during the winter months.
Around Thanksgiving, the company harvested 150 pounds of lettuce, enough to make about 800 salads. That took two days and was one of their biggest hauls of the year. Although not a typical harvest for the company, Jayme says she does see an uptick in business during the winter when Alaska’s produce is almost exclusively shipped up from the Lower 48.
“If you go to the grocery store and pick up a head of lettuce right now, by the time you get it home it will be wilted,” Jayme said. “That’s sad. Literally, that’s sad.”
Jayme says some local restaurants have sourced their vegetables from Edgy Veggie because they last longer and are fresher than grocery store produce.
Nestled between two train cars-turned-restaurants on the other side of town, Henry Krull walks inside his shipping container farm. He points to a wall that’s growing hundreds of bunches of butter lettuce.
Krull is the owner of fresh365, another Kenai Peninsula based hydroponic farm. Just like Edgy Veggie, the farm operates entirely indoors.
“The advantage of growing indoors, in a container like we have, is that we can control the environment,” Krull said. “We can grow no matter what’s going on outside. It can be 30 below outside, but it’s always 70 degrees or so inside.”
fresh365 also sees an uptick in direct-to-consumer sales in the winter. Otherwise, most of their sales go to other businesses, like local restaurants.
And while indoor farming means fresh, local produce year-round for Alaskans, it faces a number of challenges. Krull says growing in a hydroponic setting is much more expensive than traditional farming methods. So, to offset his farm’s energy costs, he installed solar panels, which were partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP.
But, Krull says the property doesn’t get much sunlight in the winter.
“The sun is a very valuable commodity, it’s valuable for not only producing electricity, but it helps to lower the energy costs,” he said. “And the energy costs of the farm containers we have is actually very, very high, because we can’t take advantage of the sun.”
Edgy Veggie, on the other hand, doesn’t even have solar panels. Jayme says their energy costs are high year round.
“Electricity, especially, is outrageous,” she said. “I wish that the state had some sort of option with the electric companies to help support farming. We’re providing a service to the community, honestly. We’re trying to, but it might run us out of business.”
Other challenges to hydroponics include faulty pumps and timers, ventilation issues and water leaks. Like traditional farming, hydroponic farmers say it’s backbreaking work.
But, for farmers like Taylor Lewis, offering fresh and local produce year round is a labor of love.
“Being able to supply our community with anything fresh is great,” Taylor said. “What we have as options in the grocery store – it’s not cutting it.”
“These belong in every community,” Krull said. “We’ve been able to prove that as a business model, it works. You can make a profit doing it, you can provide a good service to your community, and I think we can really do good for our community by providing something that is not readily available on a year-round basis.”
According to the U.S Department of Agriculture, only 5% of food Alaskans consume is grown locally. The state also has very short growing seasons.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – It’s not the Polar Express, exactly, but families rode a train with Santa and his elves for a festive family event.
The Holiday Train is one of several event-oriented train rides hosted by Alaska Railroads. The train made three holiday runs in the month of December, this Saturday was it’s last. Tickets to ride were completely sold out for both the afternoon and evening ride.
Passengers sang carols and shared snacks on the two and a half hour ride, but one special passenger aboard the train was a real Christmas celebrity. Santa Claus accompanied riders on their trip as they enjoyed entertainment by a magician, and left the train with holiday-themed balloon animals.
The train pulled into the Anchorage depot after it’s tour, each end of the locomotive decorated in holiday lights.
The Johnsons, a family of four who just disembarked from the train, said 2024 was their second year on the holiday train. Addie, 9, said there was a lot of entertainment and she hopes to eventually come again. Her younger brother Liam said he got to meet Santa while riding, and would like a toy truck for Christmas.
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