German City To Force Meat Free Meals On Elementary School Children

The German City of Freiburg is forcing meat free meals on children at primary school or daycare, provoking outrage among parents.

All school meals are to be meatless from now on with authorities mandating vegetarian-only menus from next year. They have said that all meat and fish offerings will be stripped from school meals starting in 2023.

The move follows similar decisions made in the UK. Meanwhile government officials in the Netherlands have been encouraging elementary school children to eat bugs as a “sustainable” source of protein.

Breitbart reports: Although authorities in other countries have pushed similar measures with reference to green agenda goals, according to documents published on the official Freiburg council website, the decision to force children to eat veggie-only meals was an economic one, with authorities arguing that the change streamlines feeding processes for the city.

“In order to simplify the processing of meals, from ordering to serving, only one menu will be offered at primary schools and municipal day-care centres from the 2023/2024 school year,” the document detailing the decision reads.

“Since the intersection of different eating habits is a vegetarian offer, the menu line should be vegetarian in the future,” the document goes on to claim, before citing the high cost of meat as being another reason to implement the ban.

While authorities in Freiburg appear content to strip meat from school menus for purely economic reasons — even saying that the measure could soon apply to High Schools under control of the council in the future — others seem far less pleased with the ban.

Many parents have taken to social media to vent their frustration at the decision, with even the Ministry of Agriculture in Stuttgart — the capital of the state within which Freiburg resides — taking issue with the decision.

According to Der Spiegel, while officials in the ministry did say that reducing meat consumption for many children would be far from inappropriate, Germany’s youth should ultimately be allowed to decide for themselves what food they do or do not eat.

“This also includes the consumption of meat,” the ministry reportedly said.