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“H Feeding Communities Subsistence economy is more than cash and calories By Isaac Stone Simonelli 44 | May 2022
arvesting our personal food has been something that my family has always done,” says Johon Atkinson, a community wellness specialist in Metlakatla. “We've always harvested off the land and been able to fill our freezers with wealth, with investments.” Atkinson is a full-time harvester of wild resources, in addition to his career in the cash economy. Hunters, fishers, and gatherers harvest an estimated 34 million pounds of wild foods annually, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) Division of Subsistence. Those foods provide 25 percent of
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