A common Nordic vision for sustainable food systems is possible

A webinar on the Nordic food systems was held June 14th. The aim of the webinar was to explore the commonalities, differences and peculiarities of the Nordic national food systems and try to understand if there is just one common Nordic approach to food sustainability or many.

 

The main outcome of the Nordic webinar was that all the Nordic countries are different in terms of food production, retail system, policies and consumers behaviour. Before talking about a Nordic sustainable food system, the different national aspects should be taken into consideration. Still, a Nordic vision might be possible, provided that policy makers promote more cooperation and a holistic approach to sustainable food systems.

Two main projects, from Iceland a project on blue economy and from Sweden a project on Sami food in elderly houses, were presented.

Most of the speakers at the webinar agreed on that a new Nordic model on sustainable food systems is possible, provided it is integrated with local approaches, as every country has its own peculiarities. The main conclusions from the discussions are:

  • Food self sufficiency is an important issue for the Nordic countries: Norway is only 40% self sufficient, Finland is self sufficient in terms of meat and diary production, but not for fruits and vegetables and oatley/rye.
  • Meat consumption is an important aspect of the Nordic diet. In Norway it has doubled in recent years, while fish consumption is slightly decreasing. The same could be said for Finland, where meat and dairy consumption are still very high, despite some local policies aiming to decrease at least meat consumption.
  • In Finland dietary recommendations are not met by the Finnish population. Finns are interested in trying new foods but long term adoption of new food does not always follow.
  • Faroe Islands have small scale farming and fishing, and are importing the majority of food they consume. Depsite all this, food and farming traditions are strong and passed on from generation to generation.
  • In Sweden a specific project “Healthy ageing for Indigenous communities in India and Sweden with focus on nutricous and culturally adequate food provision” funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (2022-2025) is helping Sami elderly people to eat their traditional food in elderly houses.
  • In Iceland a project run by University of Iceland on barriers and challenges to circular blue economy, found out that there is a strong need for holistic mapping of the waste streamsand a strong competition for natural resources. More collaborations and an enhanced institutional capacity would benefit the sector.
  • Denmark is promoting food innovations through the Food Bio cluster Denmark which supports companies i promoting and accelerating food innovations.

The webinar was arranged by the NKJ co-funded researcher network “The role of Nordic research in transition to sustainable agro-marine food systems”. The network aims to start an interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder dialogue among the eight partner universities and other relevant institutions on the role of Nordic research in transition to sustainable agro-marine food systems.