AGRO professor joins in the public debate
Facts, feelings and professional pride sometimes blend with each other in public discussions about topics such as aquatic environment plans, food habits and climate change – but then Professor Jørgen E. Olesen enters the scene.
In AGRO we have a researcher who is not afraid to speak out when the public debate becomes muddied by emotions, prejudices and wishful thinking. The man in question is Professor Jørgen E. Olesen, KLIMA. Not only does he step forward when the media need an expert to comment on something regarding climate and agriculture. Jørgen E. Olesen also has the tendency to strike out on his own and join in the public debate with research-based comments and he does not hesitate to give politicians, consumers, the agricultural industry and Aarhus University a telling off.
- Knowledge brings commitments and burdens, as one of my colleagues in the Danish Ethical Committee once said, says Jørgen E. Olesen.
When the debate about the government’s agricultural package was at its peak last year, Jørgen E. Olesen was in the press just about every day. Lately, the press has covered a debate about the political and scientific basis for the Danish aquatic environment plans that have been subject to an international evaluation. The agricultural sector and Aarhus University are in each their corner with regard to their take on how positive the evaluation is. In the national agricultural newspaper Landbrugsavisen Jørgen E. Olesen encourages both parties to disengage automatic reactions and instead initiate a dialogue. At the same time, he encourages our politicians to state in clear terms what their position is on reaching the goals for nitrogen within 10 years.
Eat less meat
Climate change and agriculture are Jørgen E. Olesen’s special areas of expertise and he is often used as an expert source by the press. A recent example is an article in a national tabloid newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, on October 14, 2017, in which he provides tips on what we can do as consumers to help the climate. One of his messages is that we should eat less meat. The communicative professor often repeats this message, including in connection with the events organised by Folkeuniversitetet.
- Get the Price brothers (popular television cooks, red.) to cook environmentally friendly food on television, food with vegetables, legumes and various varieties of grain instead of all that meat. The changes need to be felt not only in the fancy restaurants and among the spelt segment, but in the frying pans of the plumbers and farmers. In fact, even in the cantine here in Foulum, says Jørgen E. Olesen.
As a prelude to the events, Folkeuniversitetet has conducted an interview with Jørgen E. Olesen from which the above quotation originates.
Jørgen E. Olesen participated in the opening of Folkeuniversitetet’s knowledge festival Hearts & Minds in Aarhus in September. The festival put a focus on food with approximately 70 events in Central Denmark Region. He is also one of the speakers in Folkeuniversitetet’s lecture series regarding Earth’s climate and climate change.
- I regard it is a duty to communicate knowledge, but it is actually quite fun, too, says Jørgen E. Olesen.