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Does the Environmental Gain of Switching to the Healthy New Nordic Diet Outweigh the Increased Consumer Cost?



Author(s)

Henrik Saxe1 and Jørgen Dejgard Jensen2

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5828/2014.06.004

1. DTU Management Engineering, Global Decision Support Initiative, Produktionstorvet, B424, DK-2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark 2. Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, DK-1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

The new Nordic diet (NND) was designed by gastronomic, nutritional and environmental specialists to be a palatable, healthy and sustainable diet containing 30%-40% less meat than the average Danish diet (ADD), ≥ 75% organics, and more locally grown wholegrain products, nuts, fruit and vegetables. In this study, the NND was based on economic modelling to represent a “realistic NND bought by Danish consumers”. The objective was to investigate whether the ADD-to-NND diet-shift has environmental consequences that outweigh the increased consumer cost of the diet-shift. The diet-shift reduced the three most important environmental impacts by 16%-22%, mainly caused by reduced meat content. The surcharge to consumers of the ADD-to-NND diet-shift was €216/capita/year. In monetary terms, the savings related to the environmental impact of the diet-shift were €151/capita/year. 70% of the increased consumer cost of the ADD-to-NND diet-shift was countered by the reduced socioeconomic advantage associated with the reduced environmental impact of the NND.

Environmental impact, health, life cycle assessment, meat, new Nordic diet, OPUS, organics, socioeconomic cost.