The world-first Danish plant-based food policy may teach other countries how to reduce meat consumption: establish demand first.
Trine Krebs loves produce. “When I get a plant in my hands that I can feel is healthy, I can smell it, feel it, almost taste it in my mouth,” proclaims the 47-year-old cardigan-clad farmer over Zoom.
Krebs has been dubbed “Miss Dry-Legume of Denmark” for her promotion of plant-rich (or “plant-rig” in Danish) diets. She has organized culinary festivals, taught chefs, and written songs. On a Danish dating program, Farmer Looking for Love, she showed her potential partners how to prepare legumes. The first rejected her, the second was lukewarm, and the third was completely won over. “He thought it tasted amazing and wanted me to teach all his friends.”
Krebs loves pulses, but not everyone in Denmark does. The least enthusiastic in cutting down on meat is Denmark, where 57% of people say they don’t want to. This hesitation contradicts data proving livestock’s effect on the planet: animal-based diets increase emissions by twice and threaten forests and biodiversity. It also violates Denmark’s new dietary recommendations, which prescribe 350g (0.77lb) of meat each week. Most Danes eat three times (Americans eat three and a half).
This hesitation may have profound origins. “In our brains we’re still on the savannah trying to survive,” Krebs says. She notes that Western diets, particularly in colder regions of Europe, are heavy in simple carbohydrates, fat, and meat, and that recent cultural history may also contribute. Denmark has large, traditional aristocratic families with lovely gardens full of the finest fruit and vegetables, like Britain. She claims that vanished. Now, instead of “sexy”, vegetable meals are typically perceived as a boring necessity added “for health not pleasure”.
The Danish government plans to modify. The Mette Frederiksen government announced a national plant-based food blueprint in October, a global first. The 40-page statement outlines the country’s commitment to normalizing plant-rich diets and encouraging vegetable and alternative protein production. The food chain-wide guidelines favor organic root vegetables, processed dairy replacements, and fermented fungus. It’s not necessary to eliminate meat and dairy, but they should be less prominent.
Harvard University nutrition expert Walter Willet, who headed the Eat-Lancet Commission’s study on the best diet for a healthy globe, is “impressed” by the move and knows of “no other government” that has executed a national strategy. “We should not be surprised that Denmark has taken a lead in this effort; they were a decade ahead of other counties in banning trans fat, and have been a global leader in developing green energy,” adds.
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Danish meat production is the elephant (or pig) in the room. “I will be interested to learn how they dealt with this issue,” he adds.
Willet’s concern is valid. Other meat-producing European nations have faced resistance to reducing or replacing animal products to combat climate change. After farmer protests, Italy banned cell-based meat last month. Tractor-led demonstrations erupted in the Netherlands in 2019 against a livestock farm buyout to reduce nitrogen emissions.
Denmark, the only European country with “more pigs than people”, is as dependent on its cattle business as any affluent, meat-consuming nation. However, its “plant-rig” practices have avoided much criticism. Even right-wing Denmark Democrats, who oppose an emissions tax on agriculture, supported a grant for the scheme.
Some Danes think their example may inspire other rich countries. Not least because the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization will issue a food roadmap during this year’s COP28 climate meeting in Dubai urging Western nations to cut less on meat. For the first time, two-thirds of summit cuisine will be vegan or vegetarian.
Denmark’s plant-based shift: what can the world learn?
From environmental NGOs to corporate executives and farmers, coordination across opposing parties may be the key to success. According to Vegetarian Society of Denmark secretary-general Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, who helped write the strategy. “The world has too much cattle. Change requires a clear and exciting alternative, not simply criticism.”
In the Greta Thunberg-inspired protests before Denmark’s 2019 election, Dragsdahl says the transition began. Mass demonstrations that year made climate change a prominent political issue in the UK, which adopted a 70% emission reduction goal. The food and agricultural sectors, among others, would need to reform to achieve this aim. The Vegetarian Society created a plant protein network to promote plant-based diets and food systems.
Seminars and conferences helped the network develop unique connections. The first was a vision paper by five green NGOs and the new Danish Plant-Based Business Association. Second, two green NGOs and the Agriculture and Food Council, which represents many Danish cattle producers, developed a plant-based research and development strategy.
The third was a new “knowledge centre” created by the Vegetarian Society and Organic Denmark, which promotes cattle. They sought common ground to form a cooperation. “We concentrated on the need for more plant-based products to be produced without pesticides,” he says.
Collaborations showed legislators there was room for cross-party support. Former environment minister and Danish MP Ida Auken advises other countries to join similar alliances: “Get the farmers on board, get the unions on board, but also be clear in your vision: say this is where we’re going and do it incrementally.”
Also important is highlighting job creation possibilities, Auken says. The Ukraine crisis has raised production prices, causing dairy and slaughter employment losses in Denmark. Auken believes the emerging plant-based sector can transform things. “If we get 2% of that plant-based market, it could mean 20,000 to 40,000 jobs, which is a lot in Denmark.”
Bringing collaboration to plan delivery is also crucial. A Plant-Based Food Grant aids this. This 1.25bn kroner (£155m/$195m) investment will promote plant-based manufacturing, with half going to organic food enterprises.
The grant’s initial round of financing, announced this week, prioritizes professional kitchen and food service retraining in Denmark. Krebs’ idea for a “vegan travel team” to teach cooks nationwide was funded. A consolidated “knowledge bank” for cooks and a new vegetarian degree for Denmark’s hospitality school were also supported.
New fermentation processes and plant-based cheese and yoghurt manufacturing have also been funded to improve supply. If customer demand is low, plant-based goods and cooking can only go so far. The second-largest investment went to programs motivating people and supporting shops. National Vegetable Week, a “Foodjam” during Denmark’s 2024 Roskilde Festival, and a supermarket chain “Make it Easy” effort are part of this tranche.
Outside the nation, the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Danish embassy in London, and UK Soil Association will work to expand Danish exports to Britain.
By emphasizing demand-stimulation over punitive measures, Danish lawmakers hope their agricultural industry will perceive plant-based food as a chance to generate new skills and employment, not a danger to their livelihoods. “A crucial climate solution. The food change is as huge as wind farms, adds Auken. “We don’t want a confrontation with farmers like in the Netherlands or vegans and carnivores. About a more intriguing culinary culture.”
What can other countries learn?
Other countries are taking notice. The Portuguese Vegetarian Association (AVP) proposes a National Plan for Plant-based Proteins. AVP’s Joana Olivereira said a Denmark-style legume-production fund was voted down by its parliament earlier this year, although left and right parties supported it.
The 2024 German budget includes €38m (£32m/$41.5m) for plant-based, precision-fermented, and cell-cultivated proteins and agricultural transformation. ProVeg International, the world’s largest vegetarian organization, called the action a “paradigm shift” but noted that the one-time sum falls short of Denmark’s bigger financial commitment and more “comprehensive” plan.
“We’re expecting the FAO’s roadmap to achieving 1.5C to set out recommendations for high-consuming nations to limit their meat intake, and – having already a leading role in the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance it is perhaps no surprise that Denmark is once again setting the example,” says Helen Harwatt, a fellow at think think tank.
Global trade competitiveness is driving the plant-based transition. South Korea will launch a plant-based food sector promotion strategy in December, calling it a “new growth engine”.
Not everyone will like a Danish-style national plan. According to Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT scientist Ciniro Costa Jr., many low- and middle-income nations, like Brazil, depend on animal products and cannot swiftly adapt. His alternative emissions-cutting measures include upgrading pastures and establishing rotational grazing.
Denmark has much to learn from other nations, notably regarding plant-based cuisine
“In India, there’s already a substantial reliance on plant-based diets, influenced by cultural, religious, and economic factors,” says Plant Based Foods Industry Association executive director Sanjay Sethi, adding that meat demand is rising.
Denmark’s meat-heavy diet makes shifting habits one of its biggest problems. The newly educated cooks will help Danes develop a plant-based version of such a diet.
