Agerskovgruppen

Agerskovgruppen was originally an informal network but was transformed into a formal association in 2020 when the group sued the state over a case concerning after-crop requirements.^[3] Except for a brief period in 2017, Jens Peter Aggesen has been the chairman throughout the years.^[3]

As of 2024, the group has about 200 members. It has organized so-called storm meetings in Agerskov with between 250 and 800 participating farmers. In total, there are about 7,500 farmers in Denmark.^[4]

The association is considered a more radical^[5] and activist agricultural organization compared to the dominant organization Landbrug & Fødevarer and Landsforeningen for Bæredygtigt Landbrug, which are themselves usually seen as a critical opposition to Landbrug & Fødevarer.^[6] Agerskovgruppen has therefore organized several tractor demonstrations, both in the local area and in Copenhagen.^[7][8]

Some of Agerskovgruppen's members also pay membership fees to Bæredygtigt Landbrug.^[9] Agerskovgruppen's chairman Jens Peter Aggesen was previously a member of Bæredygtigt Landbrug but left in 2024 when BL introduced an ethical code for the association's meetings after Agerskovgruppen's vice-chairman Holger Iversen, at a meeting with economics professor Michael Svarer, chairman of the Svarer Committee on a green tax reform, had suggested that in earlier times someone like the professor would have been hanged.^[10][9]

Agerskovgruppen does not trust calculations from biologists and climate experts about proposals to reduce agricultural emissions of nitrogen through fields to the sea and the effects of CO₂ taxes.^[11][12] In 2024, the group threatened to move against Christiansborg and block Copenhagen with tractors if Parliament introduced a CO₂ tax on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.^[13][14][15]