Farmers target meat-free school with free burgers

The association, Lantbrukarnas riksförbund (LRF), plans to set up camp outside a school in Nyköoping, central Sweden, and hand out the free burgers to anyone fancying a bit of meat.

"We think the municipality is doing this for the wrong reason," LRF Nyköping chairwoman Karin Andersson told regional newspaper Södermanlands Nyheter.

The Meatfree Monday (Köttfri Måndag) movement has gained a certain degree of momentum in Sweden, with health and environmental advantages often used to market the concept.

"It sends out the wrong signals," Andersson said about her local school district banning meat on Wednesdays. "That it's not good to eat meat and we feel accused."

The free hamburger handout was an idea meant to stir debate about the Swedish meat industry and the jobs it offers on the Swedish labour market, Andersson explained.