OK. Open your exam booklet – here is your question. Why does Newfoundland and Labrador have so few sheep, compared to other regions that are similarly well-equipped for sheep rearing, such as Iceland or Scotland?
Relax, I’m just trying to get you thinking. After all, there was a time, not so long ago, when many sheep roamed this land. In 1891, there were official records of the slaughtering of 60,840 sheep. “Official” being the important adjective there. By 1951, it was down to 5,833. In 1986 it went to about 2,900. More recently, if you weren’t part of the food production scene, you almost had to know somebody on the inside in order to get fresh lamb.
I’d like to propose a useful statistic – SPP – or “sheep per person.” In NL, the SPP is point-zero-one. Meaning, if you get together with 99 others, there’s a decent chance that one of you will have one sheep. In Iceland, which is equally well-suited for sheep rearing as this province, the SPP is over 1 – there have been more sheep than people there for centuries, despite declines in lamb consumption, and increases in population. In Scotland, there are one and a quarter sheep for each person. And in New Zealand? Well, they have over 5 sheep for every person. Which is why they have to ship so much lamb to us.
But let’s not dwell on the downside. Today on “Fit to Eat” we meet a fourth generation sheep farmer who is helping to change our SPP.
Matthew Morry is either a fourth or fifth generation sheep farmer depending on what you count as farming, as he put it. He is committed to keeping up the tradition, as well as expanding into a few other areas of farming. I meet up with him at the home farm on Ruby Line, in between the hungry suburbs which keep getting closer. It is early December, and we chat in the shed where there is a lovely crackling fire in the background. Pull up a block of wood and join us.
Season 3 of “Fit to Eat” is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
