French parliament to vote on law to offer €150 a month card for healthy food

People in France could receive a monthly food card worth €150 to help them buy healthy food, if parliament votes through a proposed bill on the subject tomorrow (February 20).

The bill, presented by green party les Ecologistes (EELV), is aiming to “guarantee food security for all”. If passed the system would be trialled for five years.

Who would have access to the card?

Everyone could have access to the card regardless of income to enable them to improve and choose “their diet…and have access to healthy, high-quality products”.

The card is intended to benefit both consumers and farmers, “who will be better paid” under the system, said proposing EELV MP Boris Tavernier at a press conference on February 11.

The card will help lower-income households who need support to buy healthier food.

Current estimates by food charity Restos du Coeur suggest that eight million people in France rely on food aid. The charity was created in 1985 with a view to offering occasional help to those who needed it; nowadays, it is becoming increasingly imperative and used regularly, it states.

One in six people in France do not have sufficient to eat, said one 2023 study by lifestyle researchers Crédoc (Centre de recherche pour l'étude et l'observation des conditions de vie), reports BFMTV.

Similarly, improving the public’s diet would theoretically have positive knock-on effects for other public expenses - say proponents - such as in the healthcare sector, where spending on health conditions linked to poor diet are estimated to cost €10.6 billion per year for obesity-related issues, and €8 billion for diet-related diabetes.

“Today, health expenditure is astronomical, we have a failing food system that is very expensive, so it would be a question of transferring existing expenditure [to the new scheme],” said Charles Fournier, one of the EELV MPs behind the bill, to RMC Conso.

What food would the card be used for?

If it goes ahead the card could only be used to buy healthy food items, with priority given to locally produced items, particularly in pre-approved shops. 

The bill proposes that the scheme - estimated to cost at least €120 billion - would be financed up to 50% by public funds, with 25% by local authorities, and the final 25% by a voluntary citizen contribution. The cost would be added to the existing €666 billion provisional social security costs expected for 2025.

There are already around 40 local food centres in France which work to provide short distribution channels from farmers to consumers, the latter making monthly contributions to keep them running.

Should it go ahead, this new “national fund” will enable the work done by these existing centres to be “consolidated” and “given a [legal] framework to strengthen existing initiatives, and enable other local initiatives to emerge in the coming years,” say the proposing MPs.

The law would “formalise a fundamental right to food” and “impose an obligation on the state to take measures”, said Senator Raymonde Poncet Monge.

Successful trials in Bordeaux and Montpellier

The proposed measure comes after a trial of a similar system in Bordeaux, in which 150 students selected at random received €100 in vouchers to help them buy healthier food from participating local shops for nine months from October 2023 to June 2024. They contributed €12 each.

A report on the trial will soon be published, but researchers say that positive effects have already become apparent. 

Dominique Nicolas, president of the Crepaq association, which initiated the experiment, told RMC Conso: “We have received moving testimonies from students who have been able to eat their fill for the first time, or invite friends to dinner without being ashamed of what they have to offer.”

Similarly, a sociologist who has been working on a similar scheme in Montpellier since 2022, Pauline Scherer, said that it has been very successful.

The Montpellier scheme gives 400 people €100 per month to buy healthy, local food, in exchange for a contribution from the participants. They pay 50%, while the local government pays the other 50%.

“People eat better and more varied food,” said Ms Scherer of the scheme.

She added that she was in favour of a national scheme, as it “would allow us to return to the fundamentals of social security”, she said. “Food-based social security…has the merit of proposing something that could address many issues.”

Mr Nicolas said the same, adding: “It may seem utopian... But we are here to turn utopia into reality.”