Jutland and Germany

After three solid days in Jutland and two field study days in Copenhagen, I’m happy to say that my Global Economics short study tour week is complete! I’m not sure what made me most tired this past week: waking up before 6AM most days, constantly traveling on a coach bus, or socializing with my 20+ classmates. All in all, it was definitely a full week that taught me much more about Denmark’s economic, political, historical, and social cultures. I won’t bore you with the details of my itinerary, but I’ll try to highlight what I found to be most interesting and unique. Forewarning: It’s still lengthy! Thank you all for reading!

Monday

To give you a sense of the size of this country… It took about four hours to cross the entire width of Denmark by bus. (That’s half the amount of time it takes me to drive from home to St. Olaf!!) We arrived in Esbjerg and learned about how it’s trying to become the “energy capital of Denmark.” The city has developed several incentives to attract businesses and families to its seaport location in hopes of becoming a tourist destination. Our visit took us to Blue Water Shipping company’s headquarters. We learned all about the history of Blue Water from one of the original founders who now sits on the company’s board of directors. Blue Water is an international freight solutions company that began its operations with three people in 1972. Amazingly, it’s now a global company with more than 50 locations in 26 countries worldwide.

One of several shipping harbors at Blue Water in Esbjerg

In general, I always found it impressive during our study tour to learn about huge global companies that originated in Denmark. Despite the nation’s small size and population, (and even a lack of natural resources), these companies were able to capitalize on their strengths at home and benefit greatly from international trade. Yes, if you can’t tell, these are exactly the kinds of issues we’ve been reading about and discussing in our economics courses!

Later in the afternoon, our group went to an ice arena to go CURLING! Basically, two opposing teams compete by sliding several heavy stones across the ice and aim for the center target. It was both easier and more difficult than I thought it would be. The ice was extremely slick, and sweeping (the act of brushing the ice in front of the stone to change the position or speed) didn’t seem to have much of an affect. On the other hand, I did score two out of our team’s three points- I’m obviously a natural!! The funniest part of curling was waiting for our instructor to tell us when SWEEP or DON’T SWEEP. We always had no idea when sweeping was necessary but he took it very seriously and would scold us when we didn’t follow his instructions. Yikes.

Tuesday

This was easily my favorite day of the trip because of the businesses we visited. We started out at Fleggaard, which is a Danish company that specializes in cross-border shopping. Since Denmark has the highest taxes in the world and a strong currency, Fleggaard sells all the products that cost more in Denmark right within the German border. Seems pretty smart, huh? They advertise to all the small, expensive Scandinavian countries and sells things like beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, candy, fatty foods, etc. We visited one of their shops after the presentation so technically I was in Germany for 15 minutes! Fleggaard has become very well-known in Denmark and was even mentioned twice by Denmark’s prime ministerial candidates during their most recent election debate. That’s the U.S. equivalent of President Obama criticizing Wal-Mart for outsourcing in the media. However, all the attention Fleggaards receives from Danish government continues to boost their sales so they absolutely love it.

That afternoon, our group visited the second largest pig slaughterhouse in the world: Danish Crown. I paid special attention during this visit because my aunt works for Cargill’s pork division and I wanted to be her informant (Hi Jackie!). We learned nearly everything there is to know about the process of slaughtering pigs during our extensive hour and a half tour. Yeah, I realize that sounds morbid and depressing. It is strange and sometimes slightly gross to witness, but if you visit a meat processing plant and eat any meat products I promise it will change the way you think about food. And even if you don’t eat meat – chances are you’re still using animal products in other forms, and those products stem from the slaughterhouse.

Danish Crown is incredibly mechanical and contains highly advanced technology. Out of everything we learned during the tour, I was most impressed with how the company has zero waste from their pigs. They’ve become super efficient and are able to export every. single. part. of a pig. In addition to bacon, ham, sausage, pork, and other traditional food products, Danish Crown pigs are used to make things like insulin, dog food, makeup, brushes, shoes, et cetra, et cetra! There are many, many other things I could write about Danish Crown, but I will leave it up to you to ask me in the comments section.

A peaceful lake in the forested area near our cabins that night. Photo by my fellow global econ group member Ngozi Mogoli.

Wednesday

The next day, we had a 180 degree look at the pig lifecycle when we visited Vidtskuegård Farm somewhere near Skanderborg. It’s primarily a pig farm that raises around 3,000 pigs annually. Growing up, my mom had always told me that baby pigs were the cutest animals on her parent’s farm. So I had high expectations for these piglets, and fortunately they did not disappoint! If you ever get the chance to hold a baby big, DO IT! I promise it’s worth the smelliness.