Greenpeace advocates not asking children to commit to eating vegetarian menus year-round or quarterly -

UGO AMEZ / SIPA

Give the choice instead of imposing.

In a survey published on Thursday, the international organization Greenpeace recommends letting children choose each day whether they want to eat vegetarian or not in the canteen, and not to impose a commitment to them on a quarterly or yearly basis.

According to the environmental protection association, prior registration could discourage them from adopting a less meaty diet.

If the prior registration "has the merit of facilitating the management of canteens and limiting food waste from the start of the implementation of a vegetarian option", it is a "false good idea", considers the organization. .

It can "discourage a whole part" of the pupils "to take it" and thus limit the adoption of a "flexitarian" practice, that is to say the "reduction of the quantities of meat consumed", pleads Greenpeace.

Thus "in colleges and high schools which offer several menus, prior registration is extremely rare" and "the necessary volumes are assessed at the beginning of the year".

Taste quality: "main factor of success"

According to the survey, “taste quality is the main factor of success”, which “requires time, patience” and “also training”: 59% of the structures questioned thus benefited from specific training, because chefs have long been used to treating vegetables as garnishes.

According to Greenpeace, more than 200 municipalities and dozens of structures offer a daily vegetarian option: "hospitals, schools, Crous, prisons (...) very large structures serving tens of thousands of meals a day", but also "Small canteens with a few hundred seats".

A unique meat-free menu in Lyon's canteens

And "whatever obstacles may be encountered and despite very different profiles, all these canteens have finally succeeded in successfully implementing this new policy".

The government is experimenting with daily vegetarian menus in school canteens within the framework of the Climate and Resilience Act drawn from the work of the Citizen's Climate Convention (CCC), which defends "a daily vegetarian choice in self-services at from 2022 ”.

The ecologist town hall of Lyon has announced that it will offer a “single menu without meat” in the city's school canteens at the start of the February holidays, in the name of the fight against Covid.

Society

Health, ecology, economy… Why the boom in vegetarian menus in school canteens is good

Greenpeace survey conducted from December 7 to February 15, among 35 municipalities and structures (20 cities, 3 colleges, 4 high schools ...) offering a daily vegetarian option in their collective catering

  • Greenpeace

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  • Vegetarianism