WWI brings changes to dinner plates.
/Marmora Herald- April 11, 1918
"In order to help overcome the meat shortage, the Government is selling beaver meat from Algonquin Park. It retails to the consumer at 17 cents a pound. The supply does not nearly meet the demand but it helps save other meats."
But according to David Wencer, a Toronto journalist, beavers weren't the only souls to be added to our food chain.
"In December of 1918, after the armistice but before the official end of the war, the Toronto Star reported on the arrival of 70,000 pounds of whale meat in Toronto. Whereas previous shipments to Toronto are implied to have been fresh, this shipment arrived in cans. Previous reports focused on the city’s elite eating choice cuts of meat, but this shipment of canned whale meat was intended for the general customer, with a reported retail value of a competitive 20 cents per pound."
