Our first night in Helsinki ends at one of those places where you think: “Why don’t we have this back home?”
A small plant-based café making vegan pizza that honestly should come with a warning—because you think about it for days afterward.
Here we sit with Viral vegans, Finland’s answer to Dyrenes Alliance, talking about everything that drives us as young activists. It’s a kind of roundtable where together we figure out how to get even more young people supporting a plant-based future.
We’ll share more about our thoughts soon, but first, let's hear about Finland’s vegan offerings — Helsinki is actually a bit of a vegan paradise.
Helsinki = vegan paradise
Helsinki is full of places where you don’t ask “Do you have vegan?” — you ask “Which one do I choose out of these 12?”
This also makes it easy to see how everyday choices and political decisions connect: The easier the plant-based option becomes, the more normalized it becomes. Research backs this up, showing that when the share of plant-based options rises compared to animal-based options, orders of meat-free dishes increase,.
And that’s exactly what many of us want to fight for back in Denmark — making it easy, delicious, and completely everyday to choose plant-based.
Workshops that actually feel relevant
Day two features a workshop on plant-based innovation in Finland and a roundtable about young people’s role in Europe’s green transition.
At Viral vegans, we work with cases, campaigns, and small projects run by young activists in Finland — reflecting on them through our own experience at DA.
How do we inspire young people to fight for this agenda and better equip them to make a difference?
A few things stand out: Young people are insanely good at generating new ideas.
We’re not afraid to experiment.
We take responsibility, even as we’re still finding our voice in all the political noise.
And maybe most importantly: We are stronger when we do things together..
When a pizza tray becomes an organizing tool
Then it’s lunch — and pizza again! It sounds silly, but there’s something magical about sharing a big pizza tray in the middle of the table while discussing everything from the EU’s climate targets to micro-activism on your own campus.
It makes political conversations less theoretical and more... human. And it’s easy to imagine creating similar spaces in Denmark — where activism isn’t just serious, but also about community, food, and thinking out loud together.
What we’re taking home (besides a craving for vegan caramel pizza)
Our days in Helsinki are wrapping up, and we’ve learned a lot alongside Viral vegans.
We’ve gathered stories and examples to use in our outreach and campaigns.
We’ve learned new tools to engage young people — especially how to make participation fun and easy.
And we’ve built a Nordic network that already feels like one we’ll keep using again and again.
We’re bringing good lessons back from Helsinki, which you can read more about in the upcoming blog post, on our social media, and at the workshops in Odense, Aarhus, and Copenhagen this January.
Helsinki has left its mark on us — now it’s time to turn it into action back home in Denmark.
