New Nordic Food – The Nordic Joint Committee for Agricultural and Food Research

June 20, 2024June 20, 2024

20 years of collaboration on the Nordic food culture was celebrated

The kitchen manifesto for new Nordic food turns 20 years. It was celebrated with a workshop and a Nordic dinner in connection with the minister meeting in Karlstad.
Photo: Frida Hagman, Länsstyrelsen Värmland

The purpose of the workshop was to pave the way for continued collaboration in food culture in the Nordic region. The Nordic region is a pioneer in sustainable food production and a reference internationally for a healthy food culture, and we want to work to maintain that position. The participants discussed which themes are important for the upcoming work. Among other things, the discussion touched values, competitiveness, proteins of the future and innovation.

The results of the workshop were then discussed at the meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MR-FJLS) on 19 June. The foundation was also laid for a dialogue that will be arranged in the autumn, and where many actors in various parts of Nordic gastronomy and food production will be involved. The dialogue will further elaborate the Nordic food culture for the future.

More about the Karlstad declaration

20 years of shared, Nordic food culture and collaboration must be celebrated properly! It was done through an evening menu by Christoffer Schyman at Matstudion in Karlstad, based on local ingredients and drinks in a New Nordic spirit. During the evening, speeches were given by Camilla Bender Larson, chairman of the steering group for New Nordic Food, and Judith Kyst, director at Madkulturen and representative in the steering group for new Nordic food. Christina Möller and Carl Jan Granqvist also spoke during the evening about the importance of gastronomy, the joint work with food culture and the importance of food enjoyment.

February 1, 2023

Here are the projects that will create our future food

Nordic food has achieved new milestones: four projects were granted funding in the New Nordic Food latest call.

1 Food as a pedagogical tool is a project addressing the challenge of sustainable eating habits as it is strongly connected to climate change, biodiversity loss, resilience of Nordic communities, low food self-sufficiency and loss of traditional knowledge. It also address teachers need of relevant and updated educational material and methods on sustainable food production and consumption.

This will be achieved by gathering, co-creating with pupils and testing food education models for schools (pupils ages 12-16) were school meals, food and route of food function as a practical pedagogical tool.

The project is a part of the bigger project Food education for future (FeFF), which aims to increase teachers’ and municipal employees’ knowledge of sustainable food and how an increased degree of self-sufficiency of food can be an adaptation to counteract climate change and support resilience in Nordic areas.

2 Building a New Nordic Food and sustainability program is a program with the long-term objectives to ensure an increased focus on sustainability and New Nordic Food within UWC Red Cross Nordic as a showcase for other similar schools and actors. The three primary short-term objectives of the project are to
1) Change the culinary profile of the school food into a Nordic Food and sustainable profile
2) Increase students’ knowledge and capacity regarding local foods and sustainability
3) Bring the knowledge from the project into humanitarian work with young people attending Red Cross ‘summer camps’ and students from ‘lejrskoler’ located at the UWC RCN campus.

3 Ungdommens Madmøde is a part of the bigger project Madens Folkemøde, which is a recurring event regarding food and food systems including among other things, master classes, workshops and food experiences. Now it is wanted to also include the children and youth in the event and this is to be done by the project Ungdommens Madmøde.

The hope is to create a platform for experts, teachers and institutions who are working with healthy, sustainable and locally produced food to children in the Nordic countries and at the same time involve children in the activities of the event. The objectives of the project are to
1) Create a Nordic Youth Food Meeting that practices the natural and culinary community that is Nordic food. And thereby show how positive experiences can involvechildren in a sustainable, Nordic food culture.
2) Create a – preferably an annually recurring – Nordic symposium to develop food experiences for children and how food for children is part of the major social challenges.
3) Increase public interest in the societal goals that can be achieved by working with prevalence and quality and Nordic ideals in public meals for children.

4 Seminar på Røros (Norge) om «terroir» og lokale smaker knyttet til nordiske melkeprodukter is a project which aims to create a Nordic arena for the exchange of expertise and knowledge between the professional community, business, educational institutions and future farmers and employees in the industry.

This is done by arranging a seminar at the dairy Rørosmeieriet. Rørosmeieriet is the largest dairy in Norway which produces organic milk and milk products and the place where it is located, Røros, is an important area for locally produced food and food products.

What is New Nordic Food?

June 19, 2022September 1, 2022

New Nordic Food: OPEN CALL on sustainability with children/young as target groups

This open call is an opportunity to strengthen networking at a strategic level among central Nordic institutions. We want to gather the forces in the Nordic food culture movement with a focus on children and young people!

Collaborations and projects that meet the goals and criteria are welcome to apply, however, there is a particularly interest for applications in the following areas:
• Public food, such as school food
• Sustainable development and communication about Nordic food culture and Nordic diet
• Sustainable meal tourism with a special focus on meals for children/young people

Application deadline: 30.09.2022 at 23.59 CEST

Max funding: 500.000 DKK/project

With this call, the steering group for New Nordic Food wishes to support projects and activities that fall within the framework of the Kitchen Manifesto and the current Nordic Nutrition Recommendations with sustainability as the overarching theme.

The project must support and promote sustainable eating habits, and the focus can be, for example, the promotion of locally produced and organic food, gastronomic values, foreign food culture and traditional dishes/products or reducing food waste. The project can identify and test or disseminate best practices to promote interest in sustainable eating habits.

The target group of the project must be children and young people between 12-20 years, e.g. at institutions such as schools, high schools, boarding schools, folk high schools, food schools, vocational schools or similar in the Nordic countries.