Paris, France
First Mover!*
First Movers are cities, local governments, or public institutions (like universities, schools or hospitals) that have at least one meal per week that is completely dedicated to vegetarian foods. This is often alongside other great programs like public education and organic sourcing, but the main criteria is having at least one dedicated vegetarian meal or day per week.
Everyone knows how important food is in France. So it shouldn’t be surprising that sustainable food is a major part of Paris’ climate plan to reduce greenhouse gases 75% by 2050. This plan commits to reducing meat consumption 20% by 2020, and requires public canteens to have one vegetarian day per week. With 30 million meals served in these canteens every year, that’s an enormous impact!
Meals are required to be sustainable or humane in other ways as well: eggs must be cage-free, fish must not come from deep water fishing, and palm oil is not allowed.
What’s next?
We did hear that a lack of central coordination has slowed implementation of these standards, so we encourage the city of Paris to invest in coordination. And requiring two vegetarian meals per week would double the impact and get Paris closer to its climate goals!