More sheep than people?

[mcolakis]

I read a "fun fact" on a packet of instant oatmeal that New Zealand has more sheep than people. This sounds like classic UL material to me. Is it still true? Was it ever?

[jw]

About ten times true, according to this clock and from the same Government website, this info.

for some reason my brain created an elaborate B-Movie plot around this thread topic. an isolated community in the middle of nowhere comes under the influence of a powerful new leader and is encouraged to cross-breed with sheep to create a new race of intelligent livestock, capable of manual labour and an easy source of food. look closely at the residents of this poor, benighted town, and you will see they are more sheep than people.

...

wiki puts the population of New Zealand at 4,143,279 as of 2006. the Ministry of Agriculture puts the number of sheep at 39,571,837 as of 2002 (see "Sheep by age, sex and farm size").

so this one's true. unless I've got confused on the statistics (which I tend to.)

[Troberg]

for some reason my brain created an elaborate B-Movie plot around this thread topic. an isolated community in the middle of nowhere comes under the influence of a powerful new leader and is encouraged to cross-breed with sheep to create a new race of intelligent livestock, capable of manual labour and an easy source of food. look closely at the residents of this poor, benighted town, and you will see they are more sheep than people.

Not completely unlike the recent movie Black Sheep: http://imdb.com/title/tt0779982/

It was even marketed with a line somewhat along the lines of "4 million people, 40 million sheep. What happens if they go baaad?".

[marrya]

[looks out the window]
I'm not sure why, then, there was "fresh" lamb in our supermarket chiller, labeled "product of Thailand"? Worse still, it was a couple of dollars cheaper/kilo than our own stuff. le sigh

marry "needless to say, I didn't buy it" ya

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by marrya

[looks out the window]
I'm not sure why, then, there was "fresh" lamb in our supermarket chiller, labeled "product of Thailand"? Worse still, it was a couple of dollars cheaper/kilo than our own stuff. le sigh

marry "needless to say, I didn't buy it" ya

Used to baffle me as to why we stock our shelves with antipodean lamb, when our own is culinarily peerless and a good sight cheaper. All politics...

[kitap]

Originally Posted by marrya

[looks out the window]
I'm not sure why, then, there was "fresh" lamb in our supermarket chiller, labeled "product of Thailand"? Worse still, it was a couple of dollars cheaper/kilo than our own stuff. le sigh

marry "needless to say, I didn't buy it" ya

If it makes you feel any better, my dad noticed that the bananas he bought on Maui last year said 'product of Ecuador'.