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Norway is out of butter (I'm looking at YOU Denmark)

Last Updated on Monday, 02 January 2012 21:11

Written by Michelle Rae

Two Swedish men have confessed to bringing 550 lbs. of 18 oz. packets of butter to Norway to take advantage of the butter shortage there. The men hoped to sell packets for $40 each (which is approximately 237.766 Norwegian krone or 276.301 Swedish krona) to people desperate for butter for the holidays.

This isn't just a short-term, sudden Christmas cookies type shortage, either. Norway has been desperate for butter for months now, because:

A hugely popular fad diet that emphasizes high-fats and low-carbs is sweeping the country that has depleted national butter supplies
It was a bad year for dairy production, the source of butter
Norway's brother and sister countries are total butter hoarders (and are secretly sibling-jealous of all of Norway's new-found oil)

Most disappointing (personally) is Denmark, one of the biggest butter exporters in the North. As depicted in this image from the most excellent and highly recommended website Scandinavia and the World (ironically, based in Denmark), Denmark has this lame excuse about supply and demand that's clearly (in my opinion) a front for his stinginess and hurt feelings. Read the whole comic here: Too Little Butter

Too Little Butter: Norway asks Denmark for butter

Butter smuggling in Norway (and deaths related to butter smuggling) is at an all-time high and is expected to last for several more months. And Christmas is almost here. Come on, Nordic peoples...help a brother out for the holidays?

P.S. All that seized butter from Sweden? It was destroyed. My baker's heart weeps.

P.P.S. The situation is so serious in Norway that even Stephen Colbert has noticed:

The Colbert Report