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Article: Agrarian nation: can Iceland become the first all-organic country?
- Article from:
- E Magazine
- Article date:
- December 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Earth Action Network, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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From mid-May to mid-August, there is almost continuous daylight in Iceland, which gives the tiny (39,000 square miles) country a short but intense growing season. Iceland touches the Arctic Circle at its northern tip, and the cold limits the range of crops, though cabbage, cauliflower and potatoes thrive, and tomatoes and cucumbers manage well in greenhouses heated by Iceland's huge reserve of geothermal energy.
Crop production is, however, dwarfed by Iceland's large sheep and cattle herds. The country's rugged cows and hardy sheep are virtually unchanged genetically from the Vikings' first imports in the ninth century. All the animals graze on Iceland's rich ...