Mexican-style shells, broccoli gratin, vegetable chili and bulgur… In Paris, vegetarian menus will become more and more frequent in municipal canteens. During her first mandate, Anne Hidalgo had introduced a vegetarian meal per week in the 1,300 collective restaurants managed by the City. Since the Climate and Resilience Law of 2021, the system has become mandatory throughout France. With her red-pink-green majority, the socialist mayor now wants to go a step further and impose ” at least ” two weekly vegetarian meals for all users by 2027. It would also like “vegetarian alternatives” are offered on other days.
The project, integrated into a vast sustainable food plan, spread over five years, is submitted, this Tuesday, May 31, to the vote of the Council of Paris. It marks the will of Parisian elected officials to take concrete action to curb climate change, while Anne Hidalgo is often accused of making decisions that contradict her major ecological speeches.
The measure should not raise a huge controversy, especially since the city council has no representative of meat professionals. “It’s a good project for health, for the environment and for public finances”, argues Audrey Pulvar, Anne Hidalgo’s assistant in charge of food. Eating less meat is supposed to reduce the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. For the City of Paris, it is above all a question of reducing in a rather painless way the emissions of greenhouse gases which contribute to warming the climate. “And since it costs less, we have leeway to buy better quality food”, adds Audrey Pulvar.
” In the right direction “
According to the Environment and Energy Management Agency, food represents almost a quarter of the carbon footprint of French households, and meat consumption is primarily concerned. Increasing the number of vegetarian meals therefore significantly reduces environmental impacts. If canteens only served dishes of this type, their greenhouse gas emissions would drop by 61%, shows a study by the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae) , published at the end of March. Such a violent turn, however, would deteriorate the quality of the meals. According to INRAE, the “best compromise” therefore consists of planning three vegetarian meals a week, and going without red meat for the other two, offering fish once and white meat once. It could “halve the greenhouse gas emissions of school meals by maintaining their good nutritional quality”.
You have 32.71% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.