Beer with whale meat raises environmental concerns

Every culture has its own particularities when it comes to meat and drink, but will an Icelandic beer that contains pieces of real whale meat catch on with consumers in that country? In cases like this, beer and wine labels have a lot of explaining to do, especially when facing the wrath of animal activists or other groups who condemn the product.

Steoja, a brewery based in Iceland, along with the Hvalur meat company are at the center of the controversy with its new line of beer in time for the upcoming Thorrablot festival, as a sort of tribute to “the gods in Pagan Iceland of the past” and the old pre-Christian calendar of that country, as reported on that event’s official website. The drink is only intended to be offered for a limited time to coincide with the festivities.

Unusual use and aggressive of seafood may be a commonly seen facet of Iceland’s cuisine, but this is proving to be too much for some groups, such as Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), an activist group that has been fighting against this practice and general, and this new brew in particular. A release from WDC quoted its head campaigner, Vanessa Williams-Grey, on this issue.

“Reducing a beautiful, sentient whale to an ingredient on the side of a beer bottle is about as immoral and outrageous as it is possible to get,” Williams-Grey said. “The brewery may claim that this is just a novelty product with a short shelf life, but what price the life of an endangered whale which might have lived to be 90 years?”

It might seem unlikely, but in such situations a color label printer with an appropriate applicator might come to the rescue, printing specific advisories on a product that address consumer concerns.