If your child’s school lunch menu contains catchy meal option days like “Planet-friendly Day” or “Mega-Monday” or “Tasty Thursday” or “Green Monday”, then they will likely only be able to choose vegetarian or vegan meals. Now I don’t have anything against vegetarian or vegan food options, but there is a growing trend for the reduction of meat on school menus, which is being heralded as helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the animal farming industry, much to the dismay of livestock farmers across the country. The Scottish Countryside Alliance reported on this recently, warning the Scottish Government against vilifying the British livestock sector at a time where farmers were facing increasing financial pressures from the proposed family farm tax.
Approximately 7 council areas across Scotland are promoting at least one day in a school week as meat-free, according to the Proveg International website, who run a “School Plate” awards scheme. Proveg are an organisation that award school caterers with either a gold, silver or bronze award. These awards are based on a number of factors, one of which includes reducing meat consumption by incorporating a meat-free day into the weekly menu. Is this an award that we want our educational establishments to apply for, given that their main purpose is to limit the right to choose what our children eat at school?
In order to achieve a Proveg Bronze Award, school caterers are given a menu actions checklist, which stipulates that menus must:
(Taken from the Proveg International website)
There is a clear tactic here to hide meat-free days from parents and pupils, given the suggested avoidance of specific words and phrases. This comes across as a deeply disingenuous way of operating, effectively keeping some parents in the dark about their child’s school participating in the meat-free day initiative.
Catering firm Sodexo have been awarded a bronze School Plates award, and it is interesting to note that they also provide catering for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service across 420 sites in Scotland. They also provide meals for many schools (both state and independent), hospitals, colleges and universities across the country.
Worryingly, Proveg are also planning to roll-out a similar scheme in hospitals called “Hospital plates”. The decision has prompted concern, with critics warning that hospitals have a duty to support the recovery of vulnerable patients through balanced, nutrient-rich meals. They argue that cutting meat from menus risks depriving patients of essential proteins and nutrients, potentially compromising health outcomes while also removing their right to choose.
Murdo Fraser MSP asked a question in the Scottish Parliament last week regarding meat-free days and ultra-processed food (UPF), in particular meat substitute products in school lunches, saying:
“We should be supporting choice when it comes to menus in schools and elsewhere. Just as there always should be vegetarian and vegan options for those who want to choose them, there should also be the option of healthy, home-produced meat for those who wish to choose it.”
Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, Jim Fairlie MSP agreed that children should have access to a healthy and balanced diet, and as a former sheep farmer, he further commented that red meat is recognised as a good source of vital nutrients, including iron, zinc and vitamin B12.
Farmers are right to be worried about this growing trend in reducing food choice across the UK. We should be celebrating the healthy, highly nutritious and top-quality food our farmers produce – including all the delicious home-grown vegetables, pulses and grains to produce healthy vegetarian and vegan meals in our public institutions. Relying on UPF meat-free products and limiting food choices in our schools is not the way forward. The Countryside Alliance will continue to campaign for British farmers, local food procurement, and freedom of choice for consumers.