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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Greening school meals: towards a public food system?

Morgane Esnault

Résumé

With the passing of the EGalim law in 2018, French legislation aims to increase the presence of organic and quality food in collective catering. Specifically, 50% of meal composition is required to meet these quality criteria. By demanding at least one vegetarian meal option per week, the law also intentions to promote vegetarianism. This food regime not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but also accommodates various specific diets based on preferences, beliefs or convictions. The aim of this presentation is to investigate whether and how local authorities responsible for school meals comply with the required reform of school meals (Morgan, 2006). The study will be based on data from a long-term study (2018-2023) gathered through interviews with school chefs and local authority technicians in three regions of Normandy (France), collected for a PhD thesis. The responsibility for school meals varies depending on the type of school, which means that multiple actors need to coordinate their efforts in the same area while developing different policies. This study presents the local policies and their effects on school meals and food planning. For example, the Normandy regional authorities support the development of legume crops, in order to increase the plant-based meals in school food. However, this type of food is not used in the primary school meals, as it is not under the same authority. This calls for local food governance, which is partly provided by territorial food plans. In this study, we will demonstrate that this kind of council does not provide a sufficient coordination, as it does not systematically include the schools’ chefs. Furthermore, local elected representatives may not always be motivated to alter the food regime, or may only request an increase in locally-sourced food (Caune et al., 2023). However, this does not address the requirement for a more just food system (Born et Purcell, 2006 ; Slocum et al., 2016). Private actors, such as entrepreneurs, grocers, or local chefs, can have a more significant impact on food systems than the public authorities by developing intermediate food tools, such as logistics platforms or vegetable processing units. Their involvement in local governance varies depending on their willingness to participate. Different policy levels are involved in school food procurement and we want to understand how they can be made more efficient, particularly through dialogue with local authorities and sharing our results. How they respond will implement the conclusion of this presentation.

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Géographie
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Dates et versions

hal-04685301 , version 1 (03-09-2024)

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Morgane Esnault. Greening school meals: towards a public food system?: Case studies from Normandy (France). 11th AESOP Sustainable Food Planning Conference - Building movement, achieving transformation, AESOP-SFP, Jun 2024, Bruxelles, Belgium. p. 296-303, ⟨10.5281/zenodo.12938366⟩. ⟨hal-04685301⟩
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