Public food systems strategies to protect environment, soil and groundwater - the case of organic food in Copenhagen

Summary in the original language of the document

There is increasing focus on the role that public food procurement and institutional food service can play in promoting sustainable production and consumption. Many metropolitan areas adopt strategies that include initiatives involving public kitchens and food procurement offices. In a number of countries sustainability policies have been launched aiming at increasing the volume organic foods in the public. Denmark is one of them. Public policies supporting the use of organic foods in the public sector has been around for a decade and municipalities has taken cornet actions aiming at increasing the share of organic and sustainable foods in food service Copenhagen is one of them and protection of soil and ground water plays an important role in this strategy. The aim of this paper is to present this case and demonstrate how public food systems can integrate organic foods in the public food service supply chain. The municipality aims at reaching a level where food consumption in public institutions is 75% organic and this goal is pursued through the participation in the Dogme network. Civil servants and catering professionals from the different Dogme municipalities work together in a network on Organic Food and aims at strengthening the inter-municipal cooperation on conversion into organic food through information and knowledge-sharing. The paper presents concrete examples of the constraints and opportunities in this type of strategy as well as some concrete tools for monitoring the progress through the use of metrics.