The annual agricultural open day Åbent Landbrug attracted a record 117,000 visitors to farms across the country yesterday, smashing last year’s record of 87,000 guests.
Martin Merrild, the head of the farming interest organisation Landbrug og Fødevarer, sees this as a sign that Danes are more interested than ever in where there food comes from.
“I think that the success this year is a clear expression that Danes are very interested in the food they eat and meeting the farmers who make their raw ingredients. They want to touch and smell the production,” he said.
Eva Kjær Hansen, the environment and food minister, took part in the event and visited a farm in southern Jutland yesterday. She thinks the day serves an important purpose.
“Åbent Landbrug is a crowd-puller that I think means a lot for agriculture,” she said.
“There aren’t many people closely involved with farming any more, so there is a need for greater understanding of what modern agriculture is.”
Next year’s event will be held on 18 September 2016.
Waterways law
In other farming news, the Environment and Food Ministry has moved to repeal the controversial law prohibiting farming on land within nine metres of waterways.
READ MORE: Farmers threaten to sue government over waterways laws
Hansen explained that the ministry has sent a proposal to remove the law from the statute books.
“Danish farmers will no longer have a waterways law – which they are not compensated for and the effects of which have been overestimated by researchers – forced down their throats,” she said.
“We’ve simply become wiser since the law was introduced, and we know today that it should never have been introduced.”
