Less meat in Parisian canteens. In any case, this is the meaning of the vote of the city council of the capital which provides for the presence of two vegetarian meals per week in its collective restaurants in 2023, and a vegetarian alternative for the other three days in 2025, according to an amended plan and voted on Tuesday by the city council. “The objective is 40% vegetarian food in Parisian collective catering”, explained earlier to Agence France Presse the assistant (PS and relatives) for sustainable food, Audrey Pulvar, whose plan for the next five years was adopted unanimously.
Elected environmentalists called for these measures to be put in place from the start of 2023. The compromise reached within the majority on the left provides for “two vegetarian meals per week in all collective catering from 2023”, while “the daily vegetarian alternative will be generalized from 2025”, told Agence France Presse the elected EELV Alice Timsit. The first measure will come into effect on September 1, 2023 and the second on January 1, 2025, confirmed the entourage of Audrey Pulvar.
Among the 21 managers of the 1,300 Parisian canteens (schools but also solidarity restaurants, nursing homes, city staff, etc.) who serve 30 million meals a year, “not all are at the same level of advancement”, explained Audrey Pulvar at Agence France Presse. For the former journalist, the objective of these measures is threefold: “to reduce the carbon footprint of the City”, “to better respect the diversity of diets” and “to free up financial room for maneuver so that managers can buy for other meat meals higher quality foods”.
The town hall also wants to go from 53% organic and sustainable food used today in its collective catering – against 8% in 2008 – to 100% in 2027, including 50% produced less than 250 km from the capital. “Today, the average is 650 km”, underlines Audrey Pulvar who wants “both” short circuits – few stages between the producer and the consumer – and local circuits – little distance. “The challenge is to make Ile-de-France a nourishing land” thanks to the AgriParis action, future operator of the City to structure these agricultural sectors and which the deputy hopes to see launched in 2023. As for imports of bananas and chocolate, impossible to produce in the north of France, they must all be from fair trade, assures the town hall.
