Today’s big topic: The marine environment is gasping for air, while the farmer calls the new law »pure populism«
Chairman of the Danish Agriculture & Food Council, Søren Søndergaard, addressed the members standing in front of a backdrop of hay bales.
What’s happening?
On Monday, 4,500 farmers gathered in Odense on Funen for the Danish Agriculture & Food Council’s general meeting to protest the government’s new nitrogen regulation. According to the plan, the Danish Parliament is set to pass it on Thursday, thereby establishing the framework for a new nitrogen regulation of agriculture. The basic idea is that farmers in the future will no longer be regulated according to how much fertilizer they may apply, but according to how much nitrogen their fields may discharge into the aquatic environment.
For farmer Kaare Larsen, whom the journalist behind the article met on the bus to Odense, the meeting is about both solidarity with his colleagues and holding on to a factual dialogue.
Kaare Larsen has just sown his crops in the fields at Brunbjerggård in Gilleleje in the northern part of Zealand. The sowing followed a cultivation plan from last year. And that, the farmer explains, is where the problem begins. The law takes effect at the beginning of 2027 and will therefore affect the rapeseed now in the ground, which is to grow to maturity by next fall. But Kaare Larsen still knows neither the discharge quotas, the compliance measures, nor the compensation rates. So he has sown as planned and based on what has already been purchased.
Why it matters!
Monday morning, the Danish Society for Nature Conservation released new figures: The marine environment is gasping for air, and even more coastal waters have been hit by oxygen depletion this year. It now applies to more than one in three. A historically high level.
»I’ve never disputed that agriculture has to make a major contribution to that transition. The narrative that we farmers don’t care about the environment is simply wrong. We want, like everyone else, fishing waters and water we can swim in. Green nature and clean fjords. This just isn’t the right way to do it«, Kaare Larsen says.
His criticism is about timing: The law should not take effect until a year later, he says, so he has time to adapt. Even if the prospect of lower earnings hardly makes him cheer. »The problem isn’t the law itself. It’s the feeling that the Parliament at Christiansborg is steamrolling over our professional expertise in order to score political points«, he says.
Also the chairman of the Danish Agriculture & Food Council, Søren Søndergaard, paints a picture of an industry with »a knot in its stomach« and a government that, in his telling, has lost its grip on the consequences of its own policy.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– After 14 years, Denmark is opening an embassy in Syria
Since 2012, the Danish Embassy in Syria has been closed to the public, but now its doors have reopened. On Monday, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen visited Damascus to formally reopen the embassy, according to the news agency Ritzau. That makes Denmark one of the first EU countries to reopen a diplomatic mission in Syria.
»We are doing this to better influence developments in Syria in a positive direction and to help rebuild the country. The reopening will also provide better conditions for strengthening diplomatic relations with the transitional government and for cooperation on voluntary returns and the forced deportation of Syrians without legal residency in Denmark«, the minister said in a press release.
– Disheartened minister sees stagnation in the number of homeless people in Denmark
The number of homeless people in Denmark is virtually unchanged from 2024. That is according to a new homelessness count conducted by the Danish Center for Social Science Research (Vive), reports the news agency Ritzau. There are 6,028 homeless people in Denmark this year, according to Vive’s count. In 2024, there were 5,989 homeless people.
The fact that the number of homeless people has risen rather than fallen since the last count is »incredibly disheartening«, according to Social Minister Monika Rubin. In 2023, after all, a homelessness reform passed by the former government took effect, and it should have had an impact, the minister believes.
»I believe there is still untapped potential in the homelessness reform. And I know that the dignity reform will make a difference for the people living on the streets. But of course we need to look at the underlying causes and at how we can truly reverse this trend. Homelessness is a complex challenge with many dimensions«, Monika Rubin says in a press release from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing.
– Now you can nominate your favorite teacher for a prestigious award
Have you had a teacher who helped you through a difficult time? Has a teacher helped your child rediscover the joy of school? Or was your former master craftsperson a role model in a skilled trade? If so, you now have the chance to recognize their extraordinary efforts by nominating them for an award.
In the coming months, with Politiken’s Teaching Award, Politiken will place greater focus on primary and lower secondary schools, upper secondary education, and vocational education and training, while honoring the most talented teachers. And anyone can submit a nomination – whether you are a student, a parent, a colleague, or something else entirely.
The nomination period runs through October 11, and you can submit a nomination and read more at politiken.dk/undervisningsprisen. There, you can also see which educators have been nominated for the award.
Talk of town: Denmark still lags behind when it comes to linguistic gender neutrality
Marianne Rathje writes a new language column every Monday. She is a senior researcher at the Danish Language Council, gives lectures, and writes books about the development of language.
Back in the 1980s, you could come across the slogan »Have you talked to your child today?« on posters in daycare centers and stickers in car windows. But today, the question for parents has instead become: »Have you degendered the way you speak to your child today?«. It has not yet become a slogan found on posters and stickers, but when I was invited to give my first talk on gender in language at a library four years ago, I was grilled about what I was doing to make my language gender-neutral – including with my own child, writes linguist Marianne Rathje in a column.
Since then, a great deal of (un)gendered water has flowed under the bridge. And yet I was surprised earlier this month when I heard that several old children’s songs had been run through the gender-neutralizing machine in the Danish songbook ’Børnesange for alle børn’ (Children’s Songs for All Children, ed.).
In an attempt to challenge gendered stereotypes, the authors have, for example, renamed the Danish song »Mester Jakob« as »Mester Maja«. In their view, the language of children’s songs should reflect the fact that girls have the same opportunities as boys – that is, ’to sleep’ and ’go to school’.
But Denmark is far behind its Nordic neighbors when it comes to linguistic gender neutrality.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.