Study: Denmark mink farm ban saving €142 million annually
September 17, 2025
thefurbearers
A picture of two mink in cages
Mink (Neovison vison) are kept in small, wire-bottomed cages on fur farms in Canada.
Photo by WeAnimals
New research shows that ammonia emissions from Danish mink farms caused millions in health and environmental costs annually – adding more evidence to the movement to end fur farming in Canada.
The study, Assessing the Impact of Ammonia Emissions from Mink Farming in Denmark on Human Health and Critical Load Exceedance, was published in the journal Atmosphere in August 2025. Until a ban of mink fur farming was announced in 2020 due to public health risks, Denmark was the largest producer of fur in the world.
Screengrab from the study
A screenshot of the study, Assessing the Impact of Ammonia Emissions from Mink Farming in Denmark on Human Health and Critical Load Exceedance, from the journal Atmosphere.
The study authors used a combination of historic data, air pollution modelling, and impact assessment to evaluate the effects of ammonia emissions from Denmark’s mink farms. Ammonia is released from animal waste and contributes to fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) in the air, which causes respiratory and cardiovascular issues. Ammonia also leads to high levels of nitrogen in ecosystems, which can lead to ecological damages and eutrophication of bodies of water.
Key findings from the study show:
Ammonia emissions from mink fur farms are substantial locally, but can be measured across wider regions, too.
The nitrogen from fur farms can harm sensitive habitats and negatively impact biodiversity.
The reduced health impacts of closing the mink sector down correspond to an annual benefit of €142 million ($231.6 million CAD).
The socio-economic benefits of reduced NH₃ emissions from a closed mink sector could offset the government’s compensation to farmers over a roughly 20-year period.
The study shows that mink fur farming has a significant and demonstrable impact on public health, the environment, and the economy. There are hidden costs to the public and ecosystem within fur farming – and that must be addressed.
Adding to this is recent news from the European Food Safety Authority and European veterinarian groups that fur farming cannot be justified within a modern, sustainable society.
The Fur-Bearers is calling on the federal government to implement a phase-out of fur farming in Canada to protect people, wildlife and the environment. Learn more about fur farming and how you can take action at www.FurFarming.ca.
Fascinating, thanks for sharing :) I'm greatly enjoying the figs this time of year, not long ago I started eating them unpeeled, they taste even better. Plus more fiber yay!
It is these gut microbes that convert the fiber in figs into energy. Chilcas, we can infer, depended upon their gut microbes to help them digest their food. They depended on their microbes to help defend them against pathogens. Such microbes helped to keep them alive, and so one might say that they also help to keep the figs around.
Homo sapiens sapiens still works exactly the same way. A common misconception is that (vegetable) fiber doesn't give us energy; not true, our gut flora breaks it down into all sorts of short chains that are consumed for example by our own enteric cells, therefore consuming less of other macronutrients.
There are plenty of mobile ryzens with a TDP of 15W, I'm not suggesting a Threadripper for a tv box, that'd be crazy :)
The -U ("ultrabook") Ryzens are found not only in laptops but also in mini pcs, very efficient (yes even at idle, I have a power meter) are also the -GE and -G APUs despite the higher TDP (35W and 65W) because of their monolithic design. And in mini pcs the system consumes less power compared to putting the same cpus on a beefy ATX motherboard with a hungry chipset and inefficient VRMs.
Intel+TSMC mobile/embedded cpus are also great choices, same concepts apply.
I should have written desktop environment (DE) and not manager (I mixed it up with WM, window managers), btw they're not just for actual desk-top computers, some are even optimised for the TV (and input with a remote). I misunderstood that you felt a need for a lighter software setup instead of simply preferring it, my bad, and kudos for making sensible choices, bloat is bad. Happy linuxing.
I share the general sentiment but lower TDP does not equal lower consumption, any "mobile" ryzen since the series 4000 on Zen 2 (7nm) is more efficient at most tasks than an N100 (10nm TSMC node), and barring specific mobo issues all have in general very low idle consumptions. But their iGPUs are a lot more capable, faster at anything, no need to limit yourself to a lightweight Desktop manager. Shop used and you might get more bang for your buck with an older ryzen mini pc than a newer N100 one.
The SP3 was particurarly stable with mainline linux (not needing surface-linux), especially regarding standby. Sadly not a repeatable experience with the more recent ones, but I'd love to be proven wrong (:
I had a similar experience with Cloudflare, for a period of time my Ironfox browser failed the challenge on one or two websites. I don't remember if it happened with Anubis, I fear there are too many variables (e.g. extensions installed) so I'd like to know how to get helpful logs.
There are a lot of fine options indeed, but nowhere near the affordability they could achieve today IMHO. EVs can be made very cheaply and every month the price of LiFePo4 (the cheaper and more robust, slightly less dense type) batteries is going down. Very few small cheap BEV cars are available. A Citroen Ami is like ~8-10k€; that (very cute) thing should cost maybe half of that.
website won't work without javascript and with js it has an awful full page popup so I copied the article here