Collaborative innovations driving development in sustainable agriculture and food across Denmark

The ability to gather food and agriculture stakeholders, in collaborative meetings of minds, is one of Denmark’s strongest attributes in securing a greener future. To share innovative ideas that solve the challenges we face, in the government, industry, and research institutions, is the foundation of implementing sustainability across the value chain.

Denmark has succesfully created a partnership to gather all agriculture and food stakeholders under a common goal: to reduce CO2 emissions in the industry. The AgriFoodTure partnership, launched in 2021, has recently unveiled a second wave of projects, building on the success of the initial 11 initiatives. These new projects encompass many different areas within the agriculture and food industry, from making clean-label mycelial bioflavored meat alternative for the market, to utilizing protein from overpopulated resource of crabs.

the AgriFoodTure partnership Has secured EUR 24 million in funding.

Partnerships Create a Common Vision for Sustainability

The AgriFoodTure partnership gathers the most important actors in the Danish agriculture and food sector: universities, knowledge and innovation institutions, SMEs, large national and international companies, civil society actors, and authorities. The target of the partnership is to create a common vision for sustainability, within the Danish agriculture and food cluster.

In 2021 AgriFoodTure launched their first pool of 11 research and innovation projects. Projects such as a zero-emissions fertilizer, reducing methane emissions from cows, and developing plant-based alternatives to fermented dairy products. These projects are now well into their operational phase, with some nearing completion by the end of this year. The success of the initial pool of projects has led to the continuation of the AgriFoodTure project and is an example of the importance of collaboration in the agriculture and food industry.

Projects Spanning the Whole Agri-Food Sector

The projects covers a wide area in the food system and thus, aids in ensuring that the Danish food cluster achieves its common vision of becoming more sustainable. One example of a project in pool 2 is HyCheese which aims to create a novel range of sustainable and cost-effective hybrid hard cheeses, integrating 40 to 80% plant protein content, by utilizing technological approaches.

Another project called MuscleFuel involves production of nutrients for cell culture using both animal and non-animal sources, which can boost cultivated meat production as a sustainable alternative to conventional meat. This project includes cross-border collaboration as it is a partnership between the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and four Danish research institutes and food companies.

The AgriFoodTure partnership is prime example of succesfull crossborder and cross sector collaboration.

Want to read more about all the different AgriFoodTure projects? Click here to acces their website: Projects – AgriFoodTure