At the end of September 2020, "Green Monday" was launched. This is a campaign advocating a meatless and fishless Monday. According to French researchers, this initiative could be effective on the carbon footprint. On the other hand, everyone should get started.
As of Monday, September 28, 2020, "Green Monday" is in effect, the second edition of a global mobilization. The goal? As the movement's official platform states, it's about replacing every Monday meat and other fish during meals. The first campaign took place in January 2019 and around 500 French personalities followed suit, inviting citizens to do the same. Officials had considered that the operation had been a success, very well followed, especially in university catering. In addition, a first evaluation study had taken place, indicating that most of the participants wanted to continue the experience.
Lundi Vert tends to initiate a dynamic of food greening. This is an objective falling within that of the Citizen's Climate Convention, that is to say reduce by 20% consumption of meat and dairy products by 2030. While environmental policies focus a lot on the issue of transport, Monday Green allows us to reflect on the ecological impact of food.
The theme of this second Green Monday campaign is legumes (beans, peas, lentils, etc.). The reason is simple:the consumption of legumes has fallen sharply in France for a century. However, these are rich in protein, fiber and complex carbohydrates. Ideally, it should reach 75 g per day and per person , which is ten times more than what citizens currently consume.
Leaders have developed a scenario to reduce meat consumption by 15% and fish. It is then a question of replacing these foods with legumes to maintain a constant level of calories. Taking the ANSES data as a reference, the French would then eat an average of 40g of meat excluding poultry (instead of 47g) and 22g of poultry (instead of 26g) every day. In short, it is a question of tripling the presence of legumes in our diet.
The carbon impact of this Green Monday is beyond doubt for Nicolas Treich (Inrae) and Laurent Bègue-Shankland (Grenoble Alpes University). In an article published in Science &Vie , the interested parties point out that the ecological footprint of legumes is (per calorie) 50 times lower than that of beef and 5 times lower than that of pork. The Green Monday scenario would save about 100 kg of CO2 equivalent per person per year.
