Danish fur farms are of the most open and most profitable in the world. Brittany Golob visits farms with Kopenhagen Fur and the IFTF

Knud Vest has been a farmer for nearly five decades. His parents were farmers. Farming is in his blood. It has become part of who he is. Over 1,000 people will visit his impeccable farm at a May open day in the Copenhagen suburb of Roskilde, the fjords just minutes away. People stream into the barn, enjoying free sausages and downing Danish beer. Even Danish MP Tom Behnke is watching his young children play on the hired bouncy castle.

The crowd is not there to see the region’s largest pig or take part in cow milking competitions. They are not visiting to try some homemade bread or homegrown potatoes. They are visiting Vest’s farm to learn more about Danish mink farming. Vest, who took over his parents’ farm decided at the age of 17 not to farm livestock. He fell in love with minks and never looked back.

Forty-nine years later, that passion shines through. “I have never regretted it,” he says. “Mink farming is something special. You are always in contact with the animals. These animals are fantastic. I love it, it’s my life.” Kopenhagen Fur’s communications director Sander Jacobsen says of Vest’s contribution to the world of fashion, “He’s been making women happy for 40 years!”

Common perceptions of the fur industry run from images of paint- throwing animal activists to baby minks trapped in steel jaws to clubbing seals in the Arctic. The modern fur trade is nothing of the sort. About 85% of animals are farmed, not caught in the wild. The remaining 15% is comprised of native seal hunters in Greenland and northern Canada who hunt seal as both a historical commodity and to control overpopulation, thereby preventing disruption to the local ecosystem.

On Denmark’s 1,500 mink farms, the animals live comfortable lives and are killed humanely and efficiently. Farmers have genuine passion for their work and have an inherent incentive to treat their animals with kindness: minks that are treated well create better pelts and thus more profits.

“That’s why they have respect for the animals, they genuinely care about their welfare,” International Fur Trade Federation’s director of communications Gorana Stojanovic says.

Today’s fur industry is also characterised by a sense of openness. Kopenhagen Fur (KF), the Danish trade body and auction house representing the industry, and the International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF) encourage open days such as Vest’s. Acting as both an educational tool and as an example of the industry’s commitment to transparency, the open days leave nothing unsaid.

“[Farmers] should be proud about their work. They have nothing to hide. If you use an open strategy, then you’re not that vulnerable,” KF’s web editor Tobias Brandt says.

At one farm, a skin expert displays the rainbow of colours in which mink pelts can be farmed next to a fashion rail. Though the animals are raised to be killed, so too are cows, pigs or chickens. Mink farming, however, is entirely sustainable. Minks are fed remins from the chicken and fish industries that are unsuitable for human use. The food itself has to be of a high quality or the minks actually will not eat it. All parts of the mink are ultimately used, except for the animals’ noses. Every bit of the expensive pelt is put to use after it is auctioned and the animal’s remains are used as biodiesel.

The processed product is also highly sustainable. Everyone has a ‘grandma’s fur coat’ buried somewhere in their closet. The benefit of fur is that it can be repurposed and used again for new designs, unlike the non-biodegradable synthetics which make up 80% of the fashion industry each year. Michael Holm, KF’s global trend and design manager, says in the organisation’s brand new design house, enthusiasm for fur has exploded in the eyes of consumers, designers and fashion students worldwide. This has become a boon not only for Danish fur farmers and everyone involved in the industry, but for the reputation and perception of the fur trade to adapt, as the industry itself already has, to modern standards.

Behnke says open farm days help people understand the fur trade and its impact on the Danish economy, “Many people think something very bad is happening out here and that the animals are sad, but they are not, they have enough space to live. I think it is very good to have a day like this and to see that there’s nothing mysterious going on here. Some people will always be against it but these days will open your eyes so that you can see why you are against it.”