NORTH POLE, Alaska (RFD-TV) — When Liam Wade, 17, tells people he wants to be a farmer, he often gets a puzzled look. After all, he lives just 90 miles south of the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can plunge to -60°F, and daylight disappears for months at a time. In northern Alaska, growing seasons last eight weeks at best. But for Wade, the harsh conditions of Alaska aren’t limitations — they’re motivation.
“People keep asking me, ‘Why even try in Alaska?’” Wade said. “But that’s exactly the point — trying, even when it’s hard, is what agriculture is all about.”
Wade, a senior at North Pole High School and the 2025-2026 Alaska FFA State Vice President, isn’t just dreaming about farming in one of the country’s most extreme environments — he’s doing it. In a dark garage warmed by LED lights, he’s growing fresh herbs and vegetables using hydroponic systems he built himself. And his produce doesn’t just feed his curiosity; it feeds his community.
“It was -60 degrees outside, and I was harvesting fresh lettuce,” he said. “There’s nothing better than that feeling when it’s dark 23 hours of the day. That’s when I realized this isn’t just a project. This is a possibility.”
An Idea is Planted
Wade was in the sixth grade when the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the United States. Although Alaskans did not see cases as quickly as “the lower 48,” he said they saw food fly off the shelves just the same.
Food shortages are problematic anywhere, but in a state with only one major road system — where most goods are flown in or shipped from a port — it’s especially dire. The entire state of Alaska didn’t receive a single food shipment for two weeks. Grocery stores went bare, the supply chain halted, and emergency food supplies ran thin.
Like many, Wade saw the pandemic as a wake-up call for investing in Alaskan agriculture.
In response, Gov. Mike Dunleavy created the Alaska Food Security and Independence Task Force in February 2022, through Administrative Order 334. Its mission is to strengthen the state’s food supply, which relies heavily on imports and remains vulnerable to disruptions.
That wake-up call stuck with Wade. He began reading everything he could about Alaska’s food system, including the task force’s full 120-page report. One term kept coming up: “controlled environment agriculture,” or CEA.
“I kept seeing ‘CEA’ over and over,” Wade explained. “It just made sense. If we can’t grow outside, then we need to bring agriculture indoors.”
By the time he was in eighth grade, Wade had decided to try hydroponics, a soil-free method of growing plants in nutrient-rich water. That Christmas, he asked his parents for a pH tester and fertilizer. Soon after, he went to Home Depot, bought buckets and tubing, and turned his family’s garage into a makeshift indoor farm.
“When it’s pitch black outside and you see your basil thriving, it’s like hope under a grow light,” he said.
But he didn’t stop there. Wade began experimenting with new methods, like crossbreeding parsley and testing organic fertilizers. Through a school project funded by a $100,000 state grant, he worked with his FFA advisor to develop a biological fertilizer made from Alaskan soil microbes and compost tea — a formula designed to mimic the natural richness of soil without relying on commercial additives.
"When it’s pitch black outside and you see your basil thriving, it’s like hope under a grow light."
Untapped Potential
“At one point in time, I was interviewing all of these Alaskan agriculturalists and what their days look like,” Wade said. “I was talking to this one farmer who had 60 head of cattle along our Alaskan Kenai Peninsula. I asked him, ‘Is this difficult?’ And he told me, ‘I’ve been farming for four years now with this herd of cattle, and I put in 40 hours of work by Tuesday at noon. I don’t even think that in those four years, I’ve made enough money to buy myself a cup of coffee. It’s pretty disheartening.’”
That conversation sparked Wade’s passion for Alaskan agriculture and its untapped potential.
“When he told me that, I was like, ‘Wow,’” he said. “This was a huge wake-up call to the state of our agricultural industry. We have all this land and increasing opportunity, but we just need more people to take advantage of it. We have the cleanest soil in the entire U.S., simply because there are parts of Alaska that no one’s even stepped foot on before.”
Feeding the Community
In a state where more than half of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch and fresh produce is often too expensive or half-spoiled by the time it reaches Alaska, Wade’s hydroponic system offers both innovation and relief.
“I donate most of what I grow to students and families in need,” he said. “They just scan a QR code, tell us what they want and when, no questions asked.”
The rest of the harvest is either recycled into compost or used for further testing. When asked about profiting from his innovations, Wade shrugged.
“It’s never been about that,” he said. “It’s about proving that sustainable food systems are possible, even in the darkest, coldest corners of the country.”
If you spend a few minutes with Wade, you’ll see that his driving force is his belief in food access for all.
“There’s no reason this kind of agricultural innovation should be locked behind a cost barrier,” he said. “If we’re serious about solving food insecurity, it needs to be accessible.”
“Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve”
But Wade isn’t just growing food. As one of six students on Alaska FFA’s State Officer Team, he said he wants to help other students see the value they bring to the industry, too.
“In Alaska, we only have about 20 FFA chapters across the state, and a lot of them are separated by hours of driving,” he said.
Driving from one end of the state to the other would take roughly 84 hours. Wade’s nearest state officer teammate lives nearly eight hours away, and the farthest is about 12. Despite the distance, the officer team travels to chapters, leads events, and advocates for leadership and agriculture across the state.
“I try to be someone who listens first, bridges gaps, and helps people feel like they belong — even if they’re from a place people don’t expect,” he said.
Sky’s the Limit — Literally!
Wade hopes to study plant science at a land-grant university after graduation, with a focus on controlled-environment agriculture. He also hopes to stay in Alaska after college.
One day, he joked, he’d love to be a scientist on Mars, growing crops in zero gravity. But for now, his feet are firmly planted in Alaskan soil.
“Alaska isn’t just a possibility for agriculture,” he said. “The innovation is already here; we just need people to believe in it like I do. When you put agriculturalists in a tough scenario and give them no other choice — that’s Alaska agriculture.”
