Dansk landbrug: en afviklingsfortælling

Klimaforsinkelsesdiskurser i den danske landbrugsdebat 2021-22

Abstract

This paper examines discourses of climate delay in the Danish debate around agriculture, especially focusing on claims and narratives used by stakeholders opposing a tax on greenhouse gas emissions. In analysing texts from different genres from 2021 and 2022 – a policy document together with its paratext and an opinion piece released by agricultural organisation Landbrug & Fødevarer, excerpts from Danish broadcast debate programme Debatten, and two governmental policy documents – the study finds a narrative from industrial agricultural organisations that regulation via taxes will result in dissolution. I also find a discourse presenting Danish agriculture as socially and economically important and as a frontrunner in climate friendly food production. This discourse is found both in publications from agricultural representatives and from the Danish Parliament and Government, thus being a hegemonic discourse. A range of discourses of climate delay are found in the texts, many of them emphasizing the nodal point “development” in a push for what Lamb et al. (2020) call non-transformative solutions: technological optimism, investments, and positive incentives are framed as the only viable solutions for the agricultural industry’s large emissions. This finding must be seen in contrast to leading experts’ call for a tax on CO₂ equivalents from agricultural production.