THE TIMES - 07/11/ 2000 - Italians are urged to adopt a
sheep and then eat it
FROM RICHARD
OWEN IN ROME
HARD-PRESSED
sheep farmers in Italy have hit on a unique way to reverse
their plummeting fortunes — offering sheep for adoption.
For just over
£108 a year, customers can "adopt" a sheep and in return
receive everything the animal produces, including cheese,
woolly socks and fertiliser for the garden. In due course,
they can also eat their adopted pet.
The plan is
the brainchild of Manuela Cozza, who runs an organic farm
with a flock of 1,300 sheep in the village of Anversa degli
Abruzzi in the mountainous Abruzzo region near Rome.
Absentee shepherds can name their sheep and monitor their
progress with photographs.
The only flaw
is the danger that the sheep’s human "parents" will become
so attached to the animal after giving it a name and seeing
its photograph that they will not want to serve it for
Sunday lunch.
The scheme’s
first sponsor, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Italy’s Minister of
Agriculture — whose surname derives from pecora, the Italian
word for sheep — admitted that he had fallen victim to this
"sentimental trap". After adopting a sheep named Medina, he
told La Stampa that he would wear the socks made from its
wool and eat the cheese, but drew the line at having her
made into chops.
Signora Cozza
said those who adopt a sheep will receive by mail five
kilograms (11lb) of cheese, three kilos of ricotta, four
pairs of woollen socks, two pairs of leggings, five kilos of
manure and, for those who can overcome their scruples, ten
kilos of meat.
In addition,
she said that the farm was setting up a website so that its
customers could follow its seasonal activities, such as
sheep shearing and lamb-feeding.
Signor
Pecoraro Scanio said that he was backing the idea because "it
creates a direct contact between the producer and the buyer,
and because it restores the client’s confidence in the
quality of the product — something we have largely lost in
an age of mass production and distribution".
