Our Secretary-General Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl has been interviewed by the BBC which has resulted in a longer piece on Denmark’s plant based strategies and climate goals.
In the article, Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl talks about how the world-first Danish strategy to encourage plant-based foods may contain a lesson for other nations looking to cut back on meat. It is all about creating a new demand for plant based foods.
“It’s clear there’s too much livestock in the world. But if you want change you need a convincing and inspiring alternative, not just criticism,” says Rune-Christoffer on BBC.
The seeds of the shift were sown, Dragsdahl explains, in the Greta Thunberg-inspired demonstrations which preceded Denmark’s 2019 election. As in the UK, mass protests that year saw climate change become a major political issue and led the country to adopt an ambitious 70% emission reduction target. Meeting this goal, however, would require change for the food and farming sector, among many others. To help bring plant-based diets and food systems into the national conversation, the Vegetarian Society established a new network for plant proteins.
The seeds of the shift were sown, Dragsdahl explains, in the Greta Thunberg-inspired demonstrations which preceded Denmark’s 2019 election. As in the UK, mass protests that year saw climate change become a major political issue and led the country to adopt an ambitious 70% emission reduction target. Meeting this goal, however, would require change for the food and farming sector, among many others. To help bring plant-based diets and food systems into the national conversation, the Vegetarian Society established a new network for plant proteins.
The network’s seminars and conferences helped to form unusual new alliances. The first was a vision report, produced by five green NGOs in collaboration with the newly founded Danish Plant-Based Business Association. The second was a plant-based research and development strategy from two green NGOs working together with the Agriculture and Food Council, which represents many Danish livestock farmers.