The French government has decreed that all schoolchildren have to eat meat if they want to have a school lunch, and bringing a packed lunch as a vegetarian alternative has also been banned.
The measures have been brought in to protect French agriculture and maintain the demand for meat, and its price. They are to be extended to kindergartens, colleges, prisons, hospitals and old people’s homes.
In the UK vegetarians such as Sir Paul McCartney have condemned the moves as a violation of human rights.