Sixth-generation farmer says continuing family farm is his duty

Heimir Sigurpáll Árnason, a sixth-generation sheep farmer, says he feels a duty to keep the farm he runs with his father at Sveinungsvík going, mbl.is reports. His family has raised sheep there since the farm was brought back from abandonment in 1995. The farm is south of Raufarhöfn.

Asked whether he had ever wanted to pursue a different career, Heimir said all options remained open. He is training as a carpenter, and his family runs a business in Akureyri where he could work. But he believes farming should continue in Iceland and be in good hands. “I think it is my duty to become a farmer at Sveinungsvík, and it is also what I want,” he said.

Heimir said people are often surprised to learn he is a farmer, especially when he attends formal champagne receptions in a suit. He said the expectation that a farmer should look like “a man from a muddy shack with a full beard” is humiliating for Icelandic sheep farmers.