Iceland review - 2016, Page 67

ICELAND REVIEW 65
farms today—most often between two
and ten of them, while only a few farms
have up to 30.
“It all started 26 years ago when we got
married and moved here,” Jóhanna recol-
lects. After studying nursing, she decided
to take up farming at Háafell, where she
had grown up. “Þorbjörn originally gave
me permission to purchase three goats.
Today we have a total of 208, or about
a fifth of the country’s goat population.
They include 180 does, nine bucks for
breeding, and the rest are geldings. In
1999, we adopted the last four hornless
goats in the country, which, incidentially,
are the only goats to carry the brown
color gene. They would otherwise have
been slaughtered. It was only then that
we became serious breeders. Þorbjörn
doesn’t like being called a goat farmer,
but none of this would have been possi-
ble without him. ”
DRAGON AND DEATH SENTENCE
As a goat farmer, Jóhanna struggled
financially for quite some time, because
compared to sheep farmers, she got very
limited state funding. She dreamt of
bringing her goats to greener pastures by
crossing the bridge to financial stability.
Following the banking collapse of 2008,
that mission seemed impossible, for the
troll of bankruptcy threatened the goats’
lives. There was every indication that
the couple would lose their land and the
goats would have to be slaughtered by
October of 2014.
Among those to be slaughtered were
some recognized film stars. One of
them was Casanova, a buck with beau-
tiful, large horns, who, along with some
does, had been offered a role in the TV
series Game of Thrones in 2013. They
were taken by truck to the vicinity of
Reykjavík, where the episode was shot,
and performed well by all accounts. The
episode showed a fire-breathing dragon
threatening the goats’ lives, snatching
one up and carrying it off in his talons.
That, however, was fiction. By contrast,
the threat the goats faced a year later was
very real.
AMERICAN INTERVENTION
Enter an American woman, Jody Eddy,
who visited Háafell looking for mate-
rial for her new cookbook. She heard
of the farm’s looming financial trouble
and decided to start a fundraising effort
through the website Indiegogo, fighting
for the survival of the Icelandic goat.
Film stars often lend their names to
important causes and, not surprisingly,
so did the famous goats. The drive was
titled, “Save the Icelandic Goat from
Extinction. Help Us Save the Goats from
Game of Thrones!”
Sure enough, money started trickling
in, not only from Iceland, but from all
over the world. Donations were received
from the US, Canada, Norway, South
Korea, Nepal and many more, total-
ing USD 115,000—exceeding the cam-
paign’s initial goal by USD 25,000.
To make a long story short, the funds
sufficed to save the goats from a one-way
trip to the slaughterhouse, by covering
overdue payments on the farmers’ loan
and enabling Jóhanna and Þorbjörn to
negotiate a deal with the bank regarding
future mortgage payments.
A new agricultural agreement, reached
last winter, provides more hope for the
Icelandic goat with a total of ISK 15
FARMING
Ljúfa, the kid.
“A psychic told me I was a goat farmer
in an earlier life.”
Jóhanna Þorvaldsdóttir