Photographs: Heather Storgaard
Text: Heather Storgaard
Denmark has been lauded around the world as the first country to tax C02 emissions in farming. The policy has impressed many, frightened others and been much talked about. In an election year, it’s a controversial policy. So, what is ‘Trepartsaftalen’? In short, it is a package aimed to revolutionise Danish farming. The aim is to reduce C02 through taxes, reduce nitrogen and create new private and state forests.
Farming
Denmark has always been a farming nation, and its prime land has allowed the country to flourish for centuries. During the post-war period, this expanded to include the export of dairy, eggs, and, most famously, bacon from large-scale farms. Danish produce became a huge part of the country’s international image throughout Europe. Conversely, in more recent years, Denmark has been hailed as a world leader in organic farming. But the challenge for the state is now to bring the whole industry on a journey towards a sustainable future!
In Jutland, there has been considerable over-farming for generations. This has had a significant impact on not only the land but also the culture of rural areas, with depopulation occurring as smaller farms went out of business and large-scale mono-agriculture took over. The intense chemicals currently used on many farms have also long had enormous effects on the quality of both drinking water and the fjords and sea around the country. I love the small things done to improve bio-diversity – there is nothing more beautifully symbolic of summer in Jutland than the wildflowers sewn in verges and on the edges of fields. But it is undeniable that more needs to be done.
Resistance
Critics of the tax say it punishes farmers rather than supporting them in the green transition. Last month, members of No Farmers, No Food, No Future (NoFFF) drove around Oksbøl in tractors in protest at the presence of Jeppe Bruus, minister for Trepartsaftalen. The little town in southern Jutland is typically tranquil, perhaps contributing to the police decision to charge the farmers with disturbing the peace.
"Denmark has always been a farming nation, and its prime land has allowed the country to flourish for centuries."
Innovation
A multi-generational, long-term approach to the future of the Danish countryside is needed for there to be an actual green transition. This will involve the state, private businesses, farmers and the wider public. So, while taxes have a place, new thinking and innovation are needed. One internationally focused Danish company looking to contribute to sustainable futures in farming is Akson Robotics. The company was founded a year ago by two Danes and a Hungarian who had all studied Robotic Engineering together in Aalborg. They specialise in using AI to support farmers towards requiring fewer and more precise herbicides. I spoke with co-founder and CEO Albert Sonne Olesen, who told me that contrary to some media portrayals of them, farmers were very up for innovation and developing their methods to become greener. Listening to him talk about their work, it struck me that this was a very pragmatic solution to some of the most significant issues in farming. If farmers can reduce their use of chemicals but still tackle weeds, yields remain high while the environment is also taken into account. Akson Robotics have trialled their work in Denmark, Germany and England and has big plans for work beyond Europe on the horizon too.
Biodiversity
One of my concerns with Trepartsaftalen is the current lack of biodiversity in the Danish countryside. While more woodland sounds progressive, the long-standing issue of plantation forests is never far from the surface. Many of Denmark’s existing forests are great in relation to CO2 but do very little to foster plant, animal and insect life. Some have even been described as ‘dead zones’, with no animals living there. So, is it really progress to take farmland out of use for food production, only for the land to still do little for plants and animals? It’s a complicated situation.
Last summer, I travelled in the Danish-German border region to visit a farm on Föhr. The area presents little in the way of change in landscape, culture or language depending on the nation state, but one of the things that hit me was the far more significant presence of animals on the German side of the border. There, I was met with the sights, sounds and smells of everything from outdoor-reared sheep to storks. In comparison with Jutland, German farmland seemed to be teeming with life! Danish farming typically sees animals housed indoors to a greater degree than in many other Western European nations, which is another issue more complicated than solely CO2 or nitrogen.
While writing this article, I spoke with a good friend who has a background and interest in regenerative farming. She felt that while Trepartsaftalen is a good attempt, it doesn’t address everything and sometimes fails to take into account the human factors in farming. For the policies to work, they rely on farmers to voluntarily give up land, but farmland is, of course, far more than simply a workspace. Giving up a place where generations have lived and worked isn’t easy. And, in her opinion, the root issues in Danish farming were still not being tackled. Farms are needed, and young people need to be involved in the sector – a challenge in a country like Denmark where large landowners dominate. To truly create sustainable change, the state, people, animals and land all need to be considered in order to move forward.