Transition to organic food in Danish public procurement: can a top-down approach capture the practice?

Summary

This paper is addressing the attention towards organic transition processes which takes place in a Danish political context at the moment. With departure in the explicit propositions in an organic vision 2020 launched by the Danish government the practice in public kitchens is presented and discussed. The main findings in several recent studies address the lack of relations between key actors in the field and the challenges in embedding the change into a resilient practice. Especially the relation between kitchen staff and the public administrations seems to be lacking. The political aim is translated into an economic support program dedicated only the teaching of kitchen staff, but does not see the relational character of the transition. Concluding remarks underlines the complexity of a transition approach and problematizes the narrow focus on educational activities as the primary initiative to make farmers and public kitchens convert their production to organic.