6 News
Our food choices are not rational – do we need a sugar tax, meat tax and subsidies on fruit and vegetables to make us eat better?
Changing our eating habits is the most effective thing we can do for both public health and the climate in the Nordics. According to a new report, taxes and subsidies are key policy tools for making that happen. Thought leaders in the food system call for strong governmental action and more collaboration for better evidence-based policies. Dietary habits are a major factor in disease development, and food systems are responsible for one-third of human-caused emissions. The new report “Policy tools for sustainable and healthy eating” explores policy measures that could facilitate the adoption of sustainable and healthy food alternatives at a time when scientific evidence repeatedly underscores the mounting pressures on both climate and public health. “This new report gives us the direction and tools for the difficult decisions we need to make and the discussions we need to have in order to make things easier for people to live sustainably and healthily,” says Karen Ellemann, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The report demonstrates how the Nordic countries can bolster their food consumption strategies in various ways and create an environment that makes it possible for citizens to eat sustainably and healthily. Taxes and subsidies are key policy tools and the report also suggests co-operation on labelling and marketing regulations to make it easier for people in the Nordics to enjoy healthier and more climate-friendly diets. People want cheaper fruits and vegetables – where is the political response? During the report launch event, several panel discussions were held with a mix of representatives from academia, government, industry, and civil society. Olga Grönvall Lund, representing the association Reformaten, highlighted the disconnect between politicians’ readiness to employ policy tools and the communication of these efforts to the public, underscoring the urgent need for more informed decision-making by both policymakers…
- 2024 March
- Nordic Region
- Health and wellbeing
Stavanger invests in green parks to improve people’s health
In Norway, the city of Stavanger is on a mission to improve its citizens’ health and quality of life with new green spaces. The most ambitious plan revolves around a new park on the Stavanger seafront but the workplan also includes the redesign of a public park and schoolyard. The city’s inspiration has come foremost from Alnarp rehabilitation garden, a unique Swedish garden dating back to the 1980s. It was established by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to improve mental and physical health through holistic design. The city is working with the NORDGREEN project to understand how the methods and frameworks used in Alnarp garden serve the health and well-being of its users, and how this knowledge can be transferred to the projects in Stavanger. “We chose three development projects which let us scale up the ideas from the rehabilitation garden, specifically create comfortable and well-designed environments that use the existing qualities as a starting point and attract investments,” says landscape architect Martina Andersson from the city of Stavanger. Stavanger is also working together with researchers in the NORDGREEN project to stress test and compare an evidence-based framework tool with its design methods. The evidence-based design will help the city to create spaces that serve the needs of both people and nature. “We will further develop the design tool to help cities in their green space planning, based on different frameworks of green space and health analysis. We will also develop a handbook for practitioners on health and green space planning in Nordic cities”, says researcher Anna Bengtsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and part of the NORDGREEN project. Three green space projects with many demands Creating green spaces is surprisingly complex. As Andersson summarises, “Thorough research is important because we need good arguments to acquire green areas that…
- 2022 September
- Nordic Region
- Governance
- Health and wellbeing
- Sustainable development