The war in Ukraine has set fire to the debate about the supply situation and food preparedness in this country. According to the UN Food Program, a global food crisis is on the way, and Norway is among the countries that import the most food in the world.
– We are vulnerable when it comes to food safety. Our self-sufficiency rate is below 50 percent, which is very low.
This is what Audun Korsæth, director at NIBIO (Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomics) says.
– It is naive to continue to think that “because we are so rich in Norway, we can always buy food”, he says.
– MORE IMPORTANT: Growing vegetables would have become even more important if there had been a halt in imports in Norway. Photo: Aage Aune / TV 2
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Emergency storage
Korsæth believes it is unlikely that we will be in a situation where all the countries we import from will stop exporting overnight. He says that it is still important to look at how we can become less dependent on imported goods.
– We must discuss emergency storage and we must ensure that there is active agriculture throughout the country, where farmers see reason to continue producing food. And then we have to take care of the little food soil we have in this country.
He also believes that it is important that we think about diet by eating more of what we can produce in this country.
– VULNERABLE: Audun Korsæth believes Norway is vulnerable when it comes to self-sufficiency. Photo: Ragnar Våga Pedersen
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– It is an insecure world and we are dependent on the food being transported and arriving.
Korsæth says that a large part of the food traded internationally must pass through narrow straits, where there is often political unrest.
– We saw, for example, what happened to the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal last summer. Then there was a huge shortage of delivery, says the director.
Like a stranded whale, Ever Given lay across the Suez Canal in March last year. The 400-meter-long and 220,000-tonne vessel was stuck on the bottom of the narrowest part of the canal.
The blockade costs world trade between NOK 60 and 100 billion every week.
– BEACH WHALE: In March 2021, the ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal. Photo: FP PHOTO / Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
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Turnip and potato
If we go back 100 years in time, we had a diet that was adapted to what we were able to produce in Norway. We ate completely different kinds of grain, and much more fish, according to Korsæth.
– In a really tight situation, we could in theory go back to the old diet, he says.
– But the population has doubled since then, and herring gruel would probably not be a consumer hit today, he continues.
The raw materials from the old diet, and which we can produce in Norway, include turnips, carrots, potatoes, meat, dairy, eggs and fish.
Healthy for Norwegians
Tine Sundfør is a clinical nutritionist. She believes that the population in Norway had done well without importing goods from abroad.
– When it comes to eating habits, most people would have thought an import stop would have been a downturn. But in terms of health, it would actually be beneficial for us. The traditional vegetables we have in Norway are healthy and fresh vegetables. In addition to the fish we have, it would have contributed to a healthy and balanced diet that covers the minerals and vitamins we need, she says.
– HAD READY US: Nutritional physiologist Tine Sundfør thinks the population had done well on what we ourselves produce from food in Norway. Photo: Anita Sælø
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Such a diet has also shown a good effect when it comes to lifestyle diseases, according to the nutritionist.
– It reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in Norway.
She believes it would have been challenging if there had been an import ban, but that Norway has good conditions. She refers to a report on developments in the Norwegian diet from the Norwegian Directorate of Health, which showed in 2020 that the coverage rate corresponding to food consumption, including fish that are exported, is 89 per cent.
– This means that we are able to produce almost the amount of food we eat today, but we have to eat a lot more fish. We would have had to eat quite differently and twisted our diet if there had been an import ban. There had been a lot of fish and potatoes. We must have grown even more. Many would probably have thought it would have been useful to have their own vegetable garden, says Sundfør.
If we had ended up in that situation, Sundfør would also have recommended picking berries when they are available, and freezing them so you have them throughout the year.
– HEALTHY AND GOOD: Nutritionist says Norway has healthy and fresh vegetables that would have come in handy if imports had stopped. Photo: Marte Christensen / TV 2
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Forced to think differently
Section manager in the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture, Harald Moksnes Weie, says that they monitor the supply situation closely.
He believes Norway is well prepared in the event of a crisis situation where imports stop.
– In a crisis situation, other measures must be taken, and one measure may be to change how a raw material is used, says the section chief.
To produce the wheat flour we are so fond of, Moksnes Weie says that we are currently dependent on importing goods from abroad. If there is an import stop, we must therefore think differently.
– A very simple example is to make flour only from Norwegian grains. Then you will get a flour that is usable to bake with, but it is not certain that it has the same baking properties as the flour we are used to, he says.
The buns and breads as we know them today might have looked different with the same recipe, and a flour exclusively on Norwegian wheat.
Flour is a biological material. The quality of the flour is important for how the bread looks, he says.
– We work to make things as usual, he adds.
– IMPORTANT RAW MATERIAL: Turnip is one of the raw materials that Norway can produce a lot of. Photo: Marte Christensen / TV 2
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Ethical dilemma
According to the director of NIBIO, Audun Korsæth, we have seen from previous crises that several countries are blocking exports, so that food for their own population can be prioritized.
– Many countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, have entered into long-term leases of large agricultural areas in other countries to ensure sufficient food supply in the future, he says.
If there is a food crisis in the world, and Norway has to import from developing countries that should really prioritize feeding its own population, then it can be a challenging problem, Korsæth believes.
– It will be an ethical dilemma, he believes.
He further says that more than 80 percent of the grain we produce in Norway today goes to animal feed. In theory, according to Korsæth, we could eat a lot of the grain that today goes to the animals, if we were to get into a crisis situation.
– FOOD PREPAREDNESS ISSUES: The war in Ukraine has set fire to the debate about the supply situation and food preparedness. Photo: Marte Christensen / TV 2
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– But this would again go beyond the animals, especially pigs and poultry that are dependent on concentrates, he says.
– An emergency solution is to slaughter the animals we have in the barns and eat them. But it’s a bit like pissing in your pants to keep warm. It will be a bit short-term, he says wideere. We could also eat the fish that we currently export abroad.
– Must share with those who are worse off
Jan Ivar Botnan is former head of research for public safety and emergency preparedness at the Norwegian Defense College. He says that there has previously been a proposal for the re-establishment of grain stocks, which was met by what he believes is the arrogance of peacetime: “We have control, the international trading systems will always serve us well.”
Then a war breaks out between two of the world’s largest grain exporters, with the danger of severely weakened crops, combined with trade sanctions that will reduce both the production and distribution of food. And it will be more expensive, he says.
He says there are no easy substitutes for food being withdrawn from the world market now, with large price increases and scarcity for the poorest as a result.
– Jan Ivar Botnan, former head of research at the Norwegian Defense College, believes that there are no simple substitutes for the food that is withdrawn from the world market now. Photo: Private
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He believes it is important to focus on what he describes as an “egoism” that characterizes the rich countries.
– Grain stocks and increased production of food grains will now be studied with a view to national preparedness. That’s good, but the perspective is wrong. Most people in the world will be skinny before rich Norwegians are down to the recommended BMI, he says.
He continues:
– We must actively work against climate change that will make the global food dish smaller and more unpredictable. We must preserve and utilize the topsoil and build up reserves with a view to leaner years, and share with those who are worse off, he says.
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