Opinion: Simon Wright
Following a trip to Copenhagen, OF+ Consulting founder Simon Wright reflects on why Denmark has become a global leader in organic food – and what the UK could learn from its approach.
As part of my work with the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, I’ve been visiting Copenhagen and talking to the people behind their food strategy. I’m left with a combination of awe and envy: awe because they’ve achieved so much – envy that we in the UK have not.
The headline figures are stark: in Denmark, 12% of all food consumed is certified organic, while in the UK, the figure is less than 2%. Why the difference?
Organic receives significant financial support in Denmark, from both local and national government. On the back of these guaranteed sales, a thriving organic and plant-based food industry is emerging. The country has one single, government-run scheme with a logo that’s applied to all organic products. And in the words of Denmark’s Food Nation (an organization working with Danish agriculture): “We Danes trust our government”. When this was said to a room full of visiting British companies, you could hear the jaws drop.
In response, innovative organic companies are using advanced fermentation and minimal processing to develop products with positive nutritional profiles and short, clean ingredient lists. Examples include Uhhmami flavour boosters, Tempty mushroom and quinoa burgers and Dava’s fermented legumes. Increasingly, Danish companies are working to upcycle food by using by-products that would otherwise be discarded, creating a truly circular food industry.
“I’m left with a combination of awe and envy: awe because they’ve achieved so much – envy that we in the UK have not.”
Copenhagen has taken public procurement to the next level. I visited a hospital where patients could choose from a menu of organic meals. Prices are kept down by the hospital’s catering department employing their own butcher so they can buy whole organic animals. Eating a more nutritious menu means that patients recover quicker, freeing up beds. School lunches recently went fully organic without increasing in price. Parents weren’t told about the change until after it happened: price parity was achieved by replacing red meat with plant-rich ingredients.
The city of Copenhagen contracts farmers directly, so there’s a diversity of organic produce, such as different varieties of apple supplied throughout the year. Plus, an organic potato farmer has become a social media star, and school visits to his farm are keenly sought after. It’s this kind of positive activity that’s helped the Danish foodservice sector overtake retail for the biggest market share of organic in the country.
I was struck by how closely Danish food companies, the government and NGOs work together. A great example is the Danish Whole Grain Partnership. It created a logo for high-fibre products, accompanied by an advertising campaign to get consumers to add more of them to their diet. When the partnership began in 2008, the average Dane ate 36g of wholegrains a day. By 2019, they were eating 82g – the highest intake in Europe. In contrast, the average Briton eats 20g a day, and one in five don’t eat any wholegrains at all.
Despite the high level of government intervention in Denmark’s diet, accusations of ‘nanny state’ and ‘government meddling’ seem absent. At a time when diet-related diseases such as diabetes and obesity threaten to bankrupt the NHS, can we afford not to follow the Danish example? And that’s before we factor in the cost of cleaning up the UK’s water supply, polluted by intensive agriculture.
‘Polluter pays’ is an admirable sentiment but is all too rarely applied. Recent YouGov polling suggests that 61% of UK respondents would support legislation that forced companies that sell foods high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) to contribute towards the resulting health costs.
Wouldn’t it be better for the UK to invest in a sustainable, organic-based food system that favours prevention over cure?
By Simon Wright, founder OF+ Consulting