By Sune Borkfelt, president of the Danish Vegetarian Society 

In recent years, meat consumption in Western societies has increasingly been questioned, both internationally and in Denmark.

Evironmentalists, for instance, have joined the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in repeatedly stating that the production of animal products is harmful to the environment and contributes significantly to global warming.

Likewise, health organizations have pointed at our meaty diet, especially red meats, as one of the main culprits in the rise of a number of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

Meanwhile, the agricultural industry has repeatedly received negative publicity in media coverage of issues ranging from bird flu and food poisoning to long distance animal transportation.

Vegetarians – in Denmark and elsewhere – have, of course, been happy to see more and more serious attention given to the arguments put forward by the movement for several decades and have used the new endorsements in various campaigns. If reducing meat consumption for the sake of health, climate and animals is indeed becoming as popular as all this attention seems to suggest, it would seem logical that vegetarian lifestyles would be on the rise. Perhaps this might even be especially true of Denmark, where a comparable rise in the number of vegetarians seen in other European countries through the last couple of decades has yet to take place. The potential, one should think, is great. Yet despite all of this it seems that, so far at least, nothing has really happened.

That nothing seems to have changed is especially noticeable to those Danish vegetarians travelling to – and returning from – other Western countries, and indeed to residents of such countries, who come to Denmark for one reason or another.

In few Western countries are the good vegetarian options as few and far between as in Denmark. Although some restaurants, fast food outlets and cafés do manage to prepare exciting dishes for vegetarian and vegan customers, most still haven’t faced up to the challenges that vegetarian travellers and changing attitudes to meat pose. Arguably, this is a problem for a country that wishes to position itself as one ready for the challenges of globalization and as a forerunner within the field of environmental thinking.

The problem is arguably worse the further away from Copenhagen you travel. In my own experience, good vegetarian meals are extremely difficult to find in most rural areas and especially so in the western and southern parts of Jutland, where people are also more likely to cling to the misguided belief that vegetarians eat seafood. The risk of ending up with a pizza or cheese sandwich, if you eat dairy, and with cooking for yourself if you don’t, is enormous in those parts of the country. Yet it surprised me when I recently travelled through Copenhagen’s international airport how poor the options were even in a place that has many thousands of international customers every day, many of whom are undoubtedly vegetarians.

The question of why conservative attitudes to food and meat still, by and large, prevail in Denmark is anything but easy to answer. A longstanding tradition of animal husbandry alongside somewhat manipulative campaigns from the meat and dairy industries are part of the explanation, as may be the fact that most relevant Danish authorities have yet to recognise that vegetarian nutrition is not hazardous to your health.

The meat industry remains the winner, while the losers are consumers who have to settle for fewer and poorer options; especially those visitors from other countries, who may lack knowledge of how to find the few places that serve up good vegetarian and vegan food.

Ultimately, however, it is the country of Denmark, which stands to lose. The failure to embrace growing needs and wishes for a decrease in meat consumption could end up undermining the branding of Denmark as an environmentally friendly country ready for the future, and may ultimately deter some of those international travellers and investors meant to be attracted by such branding.

Thousands of international visitors are due to come to this country when the UN’s Climate Change Conference takes place in December. Perhaps the expectations they come here with, and the impressions they leave with afterwards, will give us an idea if the brand of Denmark will be tarnished while the demand for meatless cuisine remains overlooked.

www.vegetarforening.dk/english