Nunavik looks at fresh rabbits, eggs to help feed communities

Jean-François Audet, centre, a rabbit producer and butcher from outside of Quebec City, shows onlookers how to carve a rabbit at a workshop hosted by the KRG in Salluit Nov.21. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KRG)

KUUJJUAQ — To cut down on the cost of shipping foods from the South, the Kativik Regional Government is looking at ways of bringing meat and egg production to the North.

That was the motivation behind a rabbit and chicken workshop hosted in Salluit Nov. 21 and Nov. 22, where participants learned what it might take to raise the small farm animals in a northern setting.

The workshop focused on chickens — not for their meat, but for the eggs they produce — a commonly used grocery item.

And why rabbits? Well, they taste like chicken, grow quickly, breed plentifully and are not labour intensive to raise, said KRG project officer Stephen Grasser.

‘We do have a challenge because few people have actually eaten rabbit,” he said. “But we had a very strong reaction.

“It would mean that we’re not reliant on the South to provide so much of our diet.”

During the two-day workshop, a rabbit producer from southern Quebec, Jean-François Audet, showed about a dozen people how to carve a rabbit.

The group talked about how and where to keep the animals, and what facility designs could work for a community project in the North.

Grasser said his department is eyeing unused shipping containers that could be joined together, insulated and ventilated.

“It’s not earth-shattering, but we’re trying to make a business case,” Grasser said.

KRG’s regional and local development department has been working for years developing the local food sector with the goal of increasing the amount of local, healthy and affordable food in Nunavik.

Their efforts are designed to address food insecurity across Nunavik, and to reverse a statistic that suggests that 84 per cent of the food consumed in Nunavik comes from the South.

So far, Grasser’s department has helped to launch a greenhouse in Kuujjuaq, with another planned in Salluit, while efforts have also been made to transform local products like berries and fish.

In the case of farming small animals, Grasser said rabbits and chickens show the potential to produce more for the community, for less than the cost of hunting animals like caribou.

But he’s quick to point out that the project does not aim to replace country foods.

“We’re not suggesting that people stop hunting,” Grasser said. “We just want to make sure that when hunted foods aren’t available, that they have a locally-produced and inexpensive choice.”

The production of eggs and rabbit meat are still a long way off, he added, while his department looks at how the products would be distributed and sold.

It’s unclear how much a butchered rabbit might retail for, although Grasser said it would have to compare to the price of a store-bought chicken.

A commercial facility in the community would also require an abbatoir, which would have to be provincially inspected and approved.

But even before that, Grasser has to establish local interest — he says he’s had some — and develop a model for how to launch the project.

“It’s certainly something we’d encourage from a nutritional point of view,” he said.