Danes take issue with portrayal of pig industry
In episode four, which was aired on UK television last weekend (23 November), Birgitte Nyborg’s (the main character) boyfriend fell ill after eating pork in a Copenhagen restaurant. However, it transpired that Nyborg’s boyfriend was allergic to the penicillin in the pork.
Nyborg is Denmark’s ex-Prime Minister (in the show) and eager to return to a career in politics. The incident provided her with the ammunition to challenge the government on its plans to relax controls on pig farmers.
However, the Danish Agricultural & Food Council (DAFC) said it was concerned that the programme’s portrayal of the Danish pig industry was “outdated” and in some respects “inaccurate”.
“The dramatic treatment of a number of specific issues may raise understandable concerns in an audience relatively unfamiliar with much of the detail of modern pig production,” it said.
“The DAFC is keen that a number of these issues are seen in a balanced context and believes that Danish pig farmers can amply demonstrate a commitment to producing high-quality pork and bacon, adhering to strict standards of animal welfare, food safety and increasingly sustainable production methods.”
Denmark’s pig production in numbers:
- Number of sows due to increase in 2022 from 50,000 to 1,086,000;
- Denmark is Europe’s fifth-largest pork producer;
- Around 29m piglets born each year;
- Exported more than 1.6m tonnes of pigmeat last year;
- Productivity improvements to boost piglet production to 36.4m and finisher production to 23.8m by 2022;
- Number of finished pigs in Denmark to increase to more than 4m.
