Organic food is a market much more developed (“mature,” they call it) in Denmark than it is in the United States. According to Tomas Fibiger Norfelt, author of a Danish agriculture advisory paper, 1993 was Denmark’s “year zero” for organic agriculture. That year, organic farming subsidies were introduced, the largest Danish supermarket chain (Coop Denmark) cut organic food prices by 15-20%, and as a result, consumption boomed. Today, 85% of all organic products are sold in the supermarkets, with farm shops and health-food stores making up the rest.

One Danish supermarket (Irma, owned by Coop) claims to have set a new world record in organic sales, citing a week in October last year when 34% of all products sold were organic. About 26% of all fresh milk sold in Danish supermarkets is organic (økologisk), and some stores don't even stock conventional milk. In one Copenhagen supermarket, 9 out of ever 10 liters of milk sold is organic. And standards for organic agriculture in Denmark are even stricter than EU standards—for example, Denmark doesn't accept nitrates in processed meat and looks down on copper fungicides in fruit farming.

Frequenters of the Saturday-morning market in Taastrup were a mix of older people, who kept talking about food “the way it used to taste”; young parents concerned about the food they fed their children; and immigrants who came from cultures with a tradition of farmers markets. There were stands selling fair-trade coffee and crafts from various developing countries, organic vegetables, free-range meat, small-production honey, biodynamic breads, and a fish wagon. One stand had a woman singing off-key Danish pop songs, and another was giving out free samples of food, donated by the various merchants, cooked à la minute and sampled out: a Jerusalem-artichoke salad; purée of kale with lemon and crème fraîche; stewed rhubarb; and flash-fried, super-fresh trout doused in herbs. People were loving it.

Farmers markets are actually a nascent phenomenon in Denmark, where so far only a few have sprouted up, but I think that can be explained by the high quality of the supermarkets, their respectful relationship with organic producers, and the terrific customer service. That said, the popularity of farmers markets is on the increase—six new ones are slated to start up this year, with another few planned in 2009.

As good as they are, there are some things supermarkets just can’t deliver.