The citizens' convention wanted to make the daily vegetarian option compulsory in public catering from 2022. Photo illustration.
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SYSPEO / SIPA
The special committee of the National Assembly, which is scrutinizing the Climate bill before its consideration in plenary session from March 29, should arrive, by the end of the week, at the much discussed measure of the vegetarian option in the canteens.
The Citizens' Convention wanted to make it compulsory in public catering from 2022. The government is proposing an experiment on a voluntary basis.
Too cautious, say Greenpeace and the Vegetarian Association of France.
200 municipalities already offer the daily vegetarian option in their canteens, recall the two NGOs.
But local elected officials, including those who already apply the vegetarian choice, warn against a forced transition.
Minced veal, fish paupiette or vegetable sausages… In Montereau-Fault-Yonne, schoolchildren are spoiled for choice this Thursday to accompany their creamed spinach.
Since the start of the 2015 school year, the commune of Seine-et-Marne has offered a daily vegetarian alternative in its schools.
A turn first taken for societal reasons, specifies James Chéron, the mayor (UDI).
“The vegetarian alternative was introduced at the same time as we capped the price of meals at 1 euro,” he explains.
We wanted there to be no ethical, religious and social obstacles to eating a meal in the canteen for the children of the municipality.
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One of the measures passed through the government filter
Six years later, Montereau does not dream of going back.
“From 92,000 meals served, we went to 135,000 for the 2015-2016 school year, and 163,000 for that of 2018-2019, account James Chéron.
And the vegetarian option is taken by 35% of the students.
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An example to show in all schools?
In any case, this is what Greenpeace and the Vegetarian Association of France (AVF) rely on to show that offering a daily vegetarian choice in canteens is not impossible.
This is also one of the proposals of the Citizen's Climate Convention to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions: "switch to a daily vegetarian choice in public catering from 2022, including the menu unique ”.
The government filter has been there.
The measure is indeed in the Climate and Resilience Bill, but it is only a matter of a two-year experiment, on a voluntary basis.
Not a second menu to make from A to Z
The measure will be examined by the end of the week by the Assembly's special committee, before going to a plenary session on March 29.
But it has already done a lot of talk around the meatless menu introduced by the city of Lyon during the health crisis.
"To the point of sometimes having made a mountain of the vegetarian option, regrets Elyne Etienne, head of the vegetarian pole of the AVF.
This is indeed an option offered in addition to the meat menu.
Many canteens already offer "meatless options", including fish.
This will not be the case for the vegetarian options, but they can integrate eggs and dairy products, even if the idea remains to diversify the sources of protein by digging into legumes [dried beans, broad beans, chickpeas, lentils ... ] "
"The vegetarian option does not require doing everything in duplicate either," adds Laure Ducos, spokesperson for "food" at Greenpeace.
Often only the main course changes.
And again, ingredients (a sauce, a starch…) can be in common.
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204 municipalities have already started
More than 200 municipalities and dozens of structures [high school, college, hospitals, prison, etc.] across the country already offer a daily vegetarian option.
Greenpeace and the AVF polled several of them in a study published on March 4.
Three obstacles often mentioned in its implementation emerge: the lack of revenue, premises that are sometimes too cramped and limited working time.
“Introducing a vegetarian option requires reviewing working methods, reinventing oneself, training in new cooking methods, longer for example for legumes,” concedes Elyne Etienne.
But persistence would pay off.
The structures questioned say that they have managed to absorb the overload of work with time and experience;
85% also assure that the vegetarian option was not associated with an increase in waste.
And 91% say the vegetarian menu costs less than the standard menu or balances out in terms of budget.
“Above all, in most cases, it has been accompanied by a move upmarket in menus, with more organic and local products, including meat,” points out Laure Ducos.
We say that the veggie option is difficult to set up, expensive, creates waste. Our study on "the reality on the ground" shows just the opposite!
No need for experimentation, it has already taken place, let's generalize it in the PJL #ClimatResilience!
@J_Denormandie @LaREM_AN https://t.co/6K06Z1EfNT
- Elyne Etienne (@Elyne_Etienne) March 4, 2021
Review the schedule?
For its part, the impact study on the Climate Bill commissioned by the government estimates that a compulsory vegetarian option from 2022 would constitute "too much of an acceleration raising both adaptation and feasibility issues" for farmers. local authorities.
“The deadline is too short, agrees Laure Ducos.
But another timetable is possible.
We are proposing to make the introduction of a daily vegetarian option compulsory in all collective catering from 2023 for canteens which already offer several options, and in 2025 for others.
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It remains, for Greenpeace and the AVF, to convince the deputies and senators.
Not easy, especially since the government is not the only one to be reluctant to make this option compulsory.
Mayors are also opposed to it, starting with James Chéron, attached to “the free administration of communities”.
"We must not come to have state canteens where the latter would dictate menus to the municipalities when they each have their needs and their problems," he explains.
"Let the municipalities decide how they organize themselves"
This is also the position of Gilles Pérole, of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF).
Mouans-Sartoux (Alpes-Maritimes), where he is assistant, is already working a lot on the environmental impact of his canteens.
“We have been 100% organic since 2012, 80% local, thanks in particular to our municipal farm, and we include two vegetarian meals per week (in a single menu)”, he lists.
But by making the vegetarian option compulsory, the fear of the elected is to drag the small towns into a risky forced march.
"If we impose two meals on them daily, many, including Mouans-Sartoux, will have to make concessions," he anticipates.
On one of the two menus, rather than homemade, they will opt for industrial products and we will all be the losers, including on the environmental side.
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Gilles Pérole is not against national recommendations, "but let the municipalities decide, especially as they are making good progress on the subject," he insists.
The proof with the weekly vegetarian menu that all school catering must offer since November 1, 2019, as part of an experiment opened by the Egalim law.
"Out of a sample of 3,000 municipalities surveyed by the AMF, 89% have implemented the measure," he says.
"But if they are globally put there for their primary schools, it is still too little the case of the departments and regions for the colleges and high schools", indicates Laure Ducos.
This is the whole problem of experimentation in his eyes: “The government itself expects that few communities will experiment with the vegetarian alternative.
This is all the more regrettable as the measure is very effective in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
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The most effective measure among those proposed by the Citizens' Convention?
The impact study commissioned by the government on the measures of the “Climate and resilience” bill finds that a vegetarian menu emits on average 30% less greenhouse gases than a meat menu.
Then, it all depends on the assumptions that are taken into account.
And we warn you, you must hang on: "If the vegetarian option becomes compulsory in all public catering, consider that it serves 3 billion annual meals and that this menu is taken by 17% of students [the current average where it is offered], then the benefit in terms of carbon footprint could be 0.77 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt eqCO2) per year, estimates Laure Duclos.
17% is the average today, while the vegetarian option is still very new and mentalities still revolve a lot around meat.
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Greenpeace and the AVF are developing a more optimistic scenario, focusing on changing mentalities, and in which 30% of diners who have access to a vegetarian menu would take it.
The gain, in terms of CO2 emissions, would be 1.35 MT CO2 eq per year.
“That is almost as much as the emissions generated by all transport in Paris for a year (1.6 million tonnes of CO2 eq), says Laure Duclos.
It would then be, together with the levy on nitrogenous fertilizers, the potentially most effective proposal for the climate among those proposed by the Citizens' Convention and whose impact on the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions can be measured.
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