Everything related to New Nordic Food was recently brought together on the Nordic Council of Ministers website 'Nutrition the Nordic way'. This inspirational site presents the results of food-related studies, recommendations on healthy eating, information on projects and events and much more. It is designed to simplify planning in the field at the national and regional levels, but also to tackle the health and nutrition problems that people face today.
Although the second period of the New Nordic Food programme is ending this year, there is no sign of the initiative losing any of its momentum. #NordicFood2024 will involve a range of vision workshops directed towards the fulfilment of the most important objectives of the New Nordic Food manifesto within the next decade. Key areas include the bioeconomy, food and the creative economy, public catering as a welfare solution of the future, the Nordics as a sustainable gastronomy region, high-quality food production in the Nordic region and exports.
Drafted by leading chefs from the region in 2004, the New Nordic Food manifesto has grown into a culinary snowball from which cooperation has developed throughout the field of food and connected sectors – the bioeconomy, the creative economy, medicine and more. Its greatest breakthrough can be considered its diversification of local food production and consumption; people being proud of their identity and the ingredients they use. Greater interest has also led to greater demand for high-quality local produce and the art of food. This has also provided fertile ground for rapid growth in small companies in the sector: restaurants, cafés, small producers and farmers.
The activities of the New Nordic Food programme are coordinated and financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia has been promoting the ideology of Nordic Food and cooperation in the field since 2008.
Grete Kodi, Adviser with the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia (creative industries, business and industry)