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9 November 2021

Copenhagen: how food can become a game changer

“It’s important to link the procurement with some of the teaching, and that’s why I brought the potato to one of the conferences. It was just to show that often you forget what it is that we’re talking about: it’s just served on the plate, you eat it and it’s delicious, but you also need to know where it comes from. you have to know the farmer and you have to know how it’s grown, how it’s handled, how it’s transported and also how it’s handled in the kitchen.”

Episode 9 of the Power of the Public Plate Podcast for now concludes this season of the podcast. In this final episode we sit down with Betina Bergmann Madsen to talk about her and her team's exceptional work in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Betina is chief procurement officer in Copenhagen Municipality and a specialist in the procurement of sustainable and organic food for the municipality’s 900 kitchens. She has been fundamental in the city’s journey to achieving its target of 100% organic food in public meals. But her work does not stop there: Betina is constantly striving to leverage procurement to improve the entire food value chain.

In the interview, Betina talks about how the Copenhagen public food procurement model is so successful thanks to many interconnected factors such as having political support, a constant market dialogue and collaboration with kitchen staff as well as teachers. We learn that sustainable food procurement means to contribute to all of the SDGs. If you have not been excited about the potential of public procurement, get ready to be inspired by our conversation with Betina as it is a testimony to the game changing potential procurers hold within their reach.

The Power of the Public Plate, brought to you by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and the UN One Planet Network, is a collection of interviews on how public authorities from around the world leverage procurement to positively impact the food value chain, to ultimately contribute to sustainable food systems. Each week new guests from different parts of the world join us to explore their idea of sustainable food procurement, so make sure to tune in for all the episodes!

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast and One Planet Network YouTube or ICLEI YouTube.

To find out more about us, visit our websites:
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
One Planet Network

Or connect with us on Twitter:
@ICLEI_procure
@10YFP

For any queries contact: Josefine Hintz - procurement@iclei.org