Pigs, nitrogen and the collapse of Denmark's fjords

When I started my FRONTIERS fellowship at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) in Denmark and started talking to environmental researchers, it soon became clear to me that two major developments were of particular concern in the Danish context: First, the highly intensive and export-oriented pig farming industry, which produces millions of tonnes of manure, leading to a massive excess of nitrogen and phosphorus in the ecosystem. And second, the destruction of the fjords and their marine life. An alarming 95% of Danish fjords are currently in an environmentally worrying state, with fish and eelgrass dying and some fjord ecosystems collapsing completely. Through many discussions with experts and reading studies on the subject, I have learned how closely these two issues are linked. Together with Danish photographer Michael Drost-Hansen, I visited the severely affected Vejle Fjord, and we went to a pig farm in Kolding to better understand the realities of pig farmers in this highly industrialised and cost-driven industry. The resulting feature for WOZ explains the link between industrial farming, the collapse of the fjord ecosystem, political lobbying and a growing civil society movement that's beginning to change policy. Copyright for all images: Michael Drost-Hansen