Meatless days in France are a thing of the past for 6 million children after the French government announced children will be forced to eat meat if they want lunch at school. The new move has left vegetarians crying foul and demand a change to the policy, but Paris seems unwilling to budge after the law was passed by decree by the country's parliament this month. It forbids serving vegetarian meals to school children and goes on to say that fish, dairy, meat or offal, “must be used in every meal.” Even bringing lunch to school is not an alternative as the government has also banned packed lunches. The ban will be implemented across kindergartens, hospitals, prisons, colleges and old people's homes. According to government officials, there will be no opting out and so “eating animals becomes a legal obligation in France and the only alternative is to starve,” said British-based vegetarian society Viva!. French Agriculture Minister Bruno Lemaire said in January 2010 that the government's aim for nutrition was to “defend the French agricultural model and counter initiatives such as those by Paul McCartney and Viva! calling for a reduced consumption of meat.” The government claims, against a battery of science proving the opposite, that the measures will improve the quality of meals served in schools because a balanced diet is impossible without animal products. “At the same time that a 100-year-old, life-long vegetarian man runs a marathon in Canada, the French government decrees that a vegetarian diet is inadequate”, said Juliet Gellatley, director Viva! “France must be the only country in the world where the health authorities have given up reading scientific research. Whether it is the BMA, American Dietetic Association or the World Health Organisation, the findings are identical – animal products are at the heart of the degenerative diseases that kill most people in the West whilst plant-based diets reduce disease risk and extend life. It is the best start in life a child could have. “This is such an assault of people's freedom of conscience and freedom of choice that it drives a coach and horses through the supposed ideals of the European Union – by one of its greatest supporters. It is so extraordinary, so Hitlerian, that it is difficult to believe. Having done it in their own country, we'd better all look out because the next thing will be an EU directive banning vegetarianism along with crooked cucumbers and crosses.” Earlier this year, France banned the full-face veil, or niqab, and has already imposed fines on women who wear what has become a traditional Islamic dress in public. BM
