There were farmer protests outside parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark this week ahead of a vote to introduce new laws on fertiliser and pesticide control.

The laws, aimed at improving the country’s water quality, would shift the emphasis from limiting nitrogen inputs to controlling nitrogen emissions from farms through a quota system which fixes the limit on the amount of nitrogen actually reaching waterways through leaching. The limits would be set for each water catchment area, and allocated to individual farms.

The use of pesticides will be banned in vulnerable groundwater recharge areas.

The Danish government has already given vegetable growers a one-year reprieve from the new rules which are due to come into force from 1 January 2027.

In June of this year, Denmark became the first country in the European Union to remove the ministry of agriculture from its government structure. It has been replaced by the Ministry of Nature and Animal Welfare.

The responsibilities previously assigned to the agriculture minister have been divided among five different ministries, leaving farmers in the country without a single point of contact for their industry in the administration.