Meat is central to the Danish diet.
Denmark is one of the world’s largest pork exporters, so beef and pork are common dinner options and the local cuisine is centred around these foods, including hot dogs, meatballs and the crispy pork dish steggtflask.
Despite having deep roots in meat eating, Denmark is now encouraging its citizens to adopt a plant-based diet.
Danes’ love of meat has long contributed to the country’s growing carbon footprint: Danes eat almost three times the recommended amount of red meat per capita (slightly less than in the United States), which has been shown to use significantly more land and produce more greenhouse gases.
So Denmark has adopted a series of innovative measures towards a plant-based diet, from a government strategy to a plant-based fund, to reduce its carbon footprint and transform agriculture.
The country tweaked its dietary guidelines and launched a plant-based food action plan in October aimed at reducing weekly meat intake and increasing the production and consumption of plant-based (or vegan) meals. The Danish government is offering grants worth 675 million Danish kroner ($97 million) to realize innovative projects that promote a “green economy.”
The government calls these strategies “the future” because they will ultimately improve overall health and combat climate change.
“It sends a signal to countries with similarly deep-rooted meat-eating traditions that it’s possible to stimulate dialogue and start working towards change. It’s easy to copy and paste,” Rune Christoffer Dragsdal, executive director of the Danish Vegetarian Society, said in a Bloomberg report published Thursday.
Earlier this week, Denmark successfully introduced a carbon tax that will tax farmers on cow emissions from 2030.
Making plant-based foods appealing to Danes
Scandinavian countries have been pioneers in stimulating change in ingrained consumer behavior: In 2003, Denmark became the first country to ban foods with excessive trans fats, and it has since become the norm across Europe.
Still, few countries have taken the path to promote vegan or vegetarian diets, and those that have tried to tackle agricultural emissions, like the Netherlands, have faced backlash from farmers.
For nearly six million Danes, considering stopping eating animal-based foods is a tall order — and one that also has ramifications for an economy that exports lots of pork and dairy products — but Denmark has found an ingenious way to keep Danes from shying away from a plant-based diet.
The key is to be subtle.
The government’s strategy is to avoid using the words “vegetarian” or “vegan” in its messaging, as meat eaters could see this as polarizing.
Business tourism organization MeetDenmark has received funding to serve plant-based foods at its events, subtly introducing people to plant-based foods, and caterers are also joining in by not putting too much information on their labels, according to Bloomberg.
The forces of education and hospitality are also coming together to make Denmark’s plant-based vision a reality: from next year, Copenhagen Hospitality College will offer a “green food artisan” degree that teaches cooking with meat alternatives.
Denmark has already begun efforts to reduce its agricultural carbon footprint, but it needs to get its lucrative meat industry and the eating habits of millions of Danes under control.
Danish Crown, Europe’s largest pork producer, has launched a meat-free menu but adoption has been relatively slow, and one of the country’s Michelin-starred restaurants switched to a plant-based menu, sparking a flood of angry food-related emails that reflected people’s unwillingness to change their eating habits.
A 2019 survey of 1,000 Danish people published in Science Direct revealed that the majority of participants had no plans to reduce their meat intake, let alone adopt a meat-free diet.
But Denmark has taken a step forward compared to other countries, which could set a precedent for the rest of Europe as they look to reduce their emissions.