Sustainable land use in Denmark?
The debate about the set-aside of peatland and the green transition of Danish agriculture is moving forward, and we at AGRO can contribute with important knowledge as a background for sustainable development. But how do we get enough space for production, climate, and nature protection? How much land should livestock production occupy? What about organic production? - And how should the distribution between different forms of agriculture, forestry, and urban development be?
Before Christmas, we received an inquiry from Videnskab.dk. They wanted to write an article to shed light on land use in Denmark. The question included the size of the areas devoted to various forms of food production, including the production of feed for livestock and areas for the production of imported feed.
To create the necessary overview, various available sources were used to generate a completely new map of Denmark (Figure 1 – in Danish only). Here we imagine as a thought experiment that all pig production is gathered in one area, that all cities are lumped together in another place and so on. Thus, the map can illustrate how much the different categories take up in area. On the other hand, it says nothing about where the production takes place, only that agriculture takes up approx. 62% of the total area, that the feed production for the conventional livestock production for cattle and other ruminants thereof occupies approx. 15% points, that 22% points of the area goes to pigs, poultry, etc., and that organic farming takes up approx. 7% of the total Danish area, corresponding to 11% of the agricultural area. In addition, the area used for the import of protein feed corresponds to an area with soybeans corresponding to approx. 14% of the Danish area, or almost the whole of Zealand.
A more detailed description of the map, which is also shown in the figure below, can be found in the article at https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/nyt-danmarkskort-saa-meget-fyler-dansk-landbrug. (In Danish)
The point of such statements is that they create a basis for a debate on how land use in Denmark can be developed, and how the technologies and green transition research-agendas, we contributed to at Department of Agroecology, can affect the development of agriculture and hence land use. There are many knowledge gaps when we need to be able to answer what different forms of transitions will lead to, and how the connection between the different land uses is basically. And it is good that we can contribute with new research-based knowledge here - for example in relation to what an increased local protein production, or an increased organic area will mean.
In reality, soil types, climate, and in general the geographical location of the individual forms of production and land use also mean a lot in relation to the climate, environmental, nature, and production effects, just as the interaction between the different forms of production can be crucial. So, there is enough to address for us, and we have good opportunities to contribute through our research to the map of Denmark of the future, and the balance between agriculture and other land uses.
Fig 1. See https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/nyt-danmarkskort-saa-meget-fylder-dansk-landbrug.