Selina Juul (1980-today) is a prominent Russian-Danish environmental activist and graphic designer universally known for being the driving force behind Denmark’s massive food waste reduction.
Born in Moscow, she immigrated to Denmark at age 13. Growing up in the Soviet Union during a time of severe shortages and food rationing instilled in her a deep respect for food. When she arrived in Denmark, she was completely shocked by the abundance and the sheer volume of perfectly good groceries being thrown in the trash, which inspired her life’s mission.
In 2008, she founded *Stop Spild Af Mad* (Stop Wasting Food), a grassroots non-profit consumer movement. Rather than using political finger-pointing, Juul adopted a positive, bottom-up approach focusing on practical solutions for consumers and producers alike.
Her activism triggered a major cultural shift. Her most famous early victory came when she convinced Denmark’s largest discount supermarket chain, REMA 1000, to completely eliminate bulk-buy discounts (like “buy 3 for the price of 2”) because they forced consumers to overbuy and throw away the surplus. This policy was soon replicated by multiple competitor grocery chains across Scandinavia. Due to her efforts, Denmark successfully reduced its national food waste by an incredible 25% within just a five-year span between 2010-2015.
As an internationally renowned expert, Juul has actively collaborated with the Danish Government, the European Union, and the United Nations.
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The Royal Connection: In 2020, she co-authored a family-focused leftovers cookbook alongside Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Denmark, which won a prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Award.
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The Vatican: Her global authority is so widely respected that she even contributed a specialized chapter to the Vatican’s official book on food loss reduction.
Her movement recently celebrated its 18th anniversary, standing firm as Denmark’s largest consumer campaign. Juul continues to push boundaries in circular economy public debate:
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The “Ugly” Veggies Campaign: She recently spearheaded national studies showing that Danish consumers have overwhelmingly embraced “imperfect” or misshapen fruits and vegetables, preventing tonnes of produce from being discarded before reaching store shelves.
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The Prepper-Stock Reminder: Following government guidelines advising citizens to build home emergency storable pantries, Juul has launched public awareness campaigns reminding people to actively consume and rotate their emergency rations before they expire, ensuring national readiness doesn’t lead to mass food waste.
The TED Talks Stop wasting food (2012) and How to Avoid Food Waste Traps (2015).
Selina Juul has received several awards for her activism: the Nordic Council Environment Prize (2013), the Danish Social Democrats Svend Auken Prize (2013).
She was named Dane of the Year (2014), European Young Leader (2018), Reader’s Digest European of the Year (2020)
Has delivered over 300 talks at venues including the EU Parliament, FAO, TEDx, Vatican events, Nordic Business Forum and COP summits
She has a blog, and also blogs for The Huffington Post and the Danish newspaper Politiken.
She published Stop spild af mad: En kogebog med mere (Stop Wasting Food: A Cookbook with More) in 2011, which is available in Gyldendal editorial.
Denmark is now a world leader in food waste prevention.