Why legumes?
Let’s look at the benefits, barriers, and opportunities.
“Legumes are everyday climate heroes and a great choice for eating healthy food that is also considerate of the climate”
Source: The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen)
The Danish dietary guidelines, which for the first time combine both climate and health considerations, recommend:
350 grams of meat per week
350 grams of fish per week
700 grams of legumes per week
Yet studies from DTU Food Institute show that Danes only consume 2-5 grams of legumes per day. To increase legume consumption, more than just recommendations are needed. A cultural shift is required—and that’s exactly why the Danish Legume Partnership strives to unite the entire value chain to create change together.
Did you know?
By following the official dietary guidelines, calculations from DTU show that we can reduce the climate footprint of our food by up to 35%.
Benefits of legumes
Legumes have a very low CO2 footprint compared to meat. They are rich in protein, iron, and zinc—just like meat—and in addition, are packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making them a healthy alternative.
Legumes can be incorporated into almost everything we eat. Whether they’re used as alternatives to other foods, playing the main role in a stew, turned into chips, or sprinkled over salads!
Leguminous plants are nitrogen-fixing crops that improve soil quality and reduce the need for fertilizers in the fields. This means that an increased proportion of legumes leads to reduced reliance on imported commercial fertilizers.
There are many different types! From kidney beans, white and black beans, red and green lentils, to chickpeas, edamame beans, and ingrid peas—and many of them can also be grown in Denmark.
The climate footprint of
beef vs. kidney beans
Producing 1kg of kidney beans emits 1.1kg of CO2e.
Producing 1kg of beef emits 61kg of CO2e.
*The graphs are based on numbers from Concitos climate data base
But… Danes don’t know enough about legumes
If legumes are so fantastic - why don’t we eat more of them?
One answer could be that Danes don’t know legumes very well.
This is what a consumption analysis from Aarhus University (2022) believes is the case.
The potential for legumes doesn’t just lie in their nutrition and climate impact. There is also enormous potential in the legume value chain. One of the biggest barriers to increasing legume consumption in Denmark is the lack of a complete and strong value chain. There is a need for ambitious players across the entire value chain—from production on the farm, processing by companies, sales at retail chains, preparation in food service, to consumers who are ready to serve them on their dinner plates.
The Danish Legume Partnership is committed to ensuring that this value chain is developed. The future will be created through collaboration, where we set goals, test interventions, and share knowledge.
Potential in the Value Chain
“One of the reasons why we can’t just swap out meat for legumes overnight is largely due to how we talk about the marketing of legumes. We need to develop a common language that inspires and generates excitement about what legumes can offer us—and provide inspiration for their use in purchasing situations, so consumers begin to put them in their carts.”
- Katrine Ejlerskov from the Danish Centre for a Plant-Based & Organic Future - Steering Committee Member of the Danish Legume Partnership
Historical Insight –
Bringing Danish Cultural Heritage Back
Legumes are actually not newcomers in the Danish diet. They are returning champions that were once a normal part of Danish food culture many years ago. Historically, dried peas and beans have been an important part of the diet since the Bronze Age. An olden day, traditional Danish dish made with legumes is ‘gule ærter’, translating to yellow peas– a porridge of dried peas with beets, mustard, and a bit of meat as a side dish.
In the 1700s, the potato became popular in Denmark, and at the same time, we began to produce more meat, fewer vegetables, and fewer legumes on our farms. But food culture is always changing. It’s time for legumes to make a comeback in the Danish kitchen—and we have the ability to drive that agenda forward!
