Feed 100,000 people without meat? It’s possible.
This is the challenge taken up by the committed music festival We Love Green in 2023, and which it wishes to renew for its next edition this weekend from June 31 to 2.
In search of reducing its carbon footprint, the festival offers sustainable, creative, local and seasonal catering, faithful to its values of sustainable development.
While the livestock sector is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, including 9.3% for cattle, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Agriculture (FAO), the demonstrations attempt to reduce their impact on the environment through the products consumed. We Love Green was one of the first to take the plunge of a 100% meat-free menu for an event of this scale. 20 minutes met Thomas Grunberg, responsible for the festival’s catering, and Antonin Girard, chef at Pantobaguette, to discover behind the scenes of this green festival which could well inspire other events to reduce their carbon footprint thanks to a vegetarian diet.
Vegetables encourage creativity
“We always wanted, through the festival’s catering, to bring the musical and culinary programming to the same level,” explains Thomas Grunberg, responsible for the festival’s catering. Before launching, the team organized several meetings with partner restaurateurs to discuss vegetarian cuisine in France and take stock of the situation and last year, we ended up taking the plunge.”
In total, 49 restaurants were selected, to delight the taste buds of festival-goers and among them, a majority of restaurateurs initially do not have vegetarian menus.
Accompanied by an “octopus map” listing all the animal protein substitutes, the food trucks and non-vegetarian restaurants that apply are guided in their creation process to offer a varied menu to their audience.
“We pushed restaurateurs who are not used to cooking vegetarian cuisine towards this cuisine, perhaps to give them new practices that they could also bring back to their restaurant and apply on a daily basis,” says the festival’s catering manager.
Selected by a jury chaired by Alain Ducasse and Romain Meder, the restaurateurs must demonstrate creativity while respecting the constraints of the festival: vegetarian dishes with seasonal, French products, from organic or sustainable agriculture, and sourced from responsible and ethical manner. New this year, the use of washable and reusable tableware is mandatory.
A beneficial effort for all
Antonin Girard, chef at Pantobaguette, a bistronomic restaurant with Asian influences, is a regular at the festival. “At no time did we say to ourselves that we were going to stop working with the festival because of the constraints of the vegetarian menu,” says the chef, who previously offered a beef burger at the festival. He then switched to chicken to reduce his footprint before going completely vegetarian. “We Love Green is an opportunity to make an effort and reinvent yourself,” he admits.
Although some restaurateurs may become discouraged, Girard emphasizes the importance of commitment. “I’m not going to say that I understand them, because ultimately, it leads us to ask questions about the way we work and commit ourselves. »
The positive point for Pantobaguette? “It contributes to notoriety, it offers visibility to an engaged young audience. » For example, to meet the festival’s requirements, Pantobaguette, which offers Asian-inspired dishes, had to find products made in France, such as organic rice or soy vinegar. The festival then pushes chefs to show creativity and commitment. Methods that can be permanently registered in restaurants. Sometimes, after adapting to the criteria of We Love Green and the festival context, certain chefs find inspiration for their permanent restaurant, as was the case for Pantobaguette with its asparagus salad with garlic and the “ sando tamago”, his egg sandwich.
With an overall carbon footprint divided by 7 following their vegetarian transition, We Love Green continues to inspire and lead the way for a more sustainable future, proving that feeding thousands of people without meat is not only possible, but equally beneficial for all.