Authorization report Helsinki stopped offering meat at its events, but dignitaries are not affected by the policy – Senior official explains why

City|Authorization report

Helsinki the city’s new policy on meatless occasions is not absolute. Meat can still be provided at events held by city top executives or the political top management, the mayoral body.

The policy has aroused amazement on both sides of the political field.

The policy has been made as an official decision. Chief City Officer, Chief of Staff Sami Sarvilinna published a new serving policy on October 28th. From the beginning of next year the main rule of the city’s events isthat they serve vegetarian food and / or local fish, Fair Trade products and oat milk as coffee milk.

Sami Sarvilinna, what are the justified reasons to offer meat or otherwise deviate from the main line in the future?

“There’s an opportunity for that, which doesn’t mean meat should be offered. I think of it as a possibility of flexibility that in individual cases it may be justified to deviate from the line from the point of view of the organizer in question. ”

According to Sarvilinna, the meatlessness policy has been prepared in the city’s environmental action. According to him, the content of the policy has been discussed, but Sarvilinna says that it is not possible to specify how the exception has formed in the management of the top management.

“I’m a carnivore myself. I will hardly apply the exception rule, but the matter is at the discretion of each member of the management, ”says Sarvilinna.

New there is no information on the impact of the serving policy on the city’s spending. As the decision applies to all kinds of events, the price of the catering will also be spread over the Sarvilinna City Office as well as all the city’s industries.

“It is not known how much the city will spend on these events in total,” Sarvilinna says.

Except for the exceptional situation during the Corona period, the city organizes various events in the words of Sarvilinna “at least hundreds”.

From his own experience, Sarvilinna says that before the Korona era, loss has been a permanent problem. It has arisen when, for example, participants in international conferences have been invited to city events and then guests have not arrived.

“And likewise, the risk of loss is high in one’s own staff events when there has been no registration.”

Binding declarations are now being asked at events to reduce losses. No information has been collected on the financial losses caused by the loss.

Town’s meatlessness has also spawned a wealth of reactions. Recently, for example, the chairman of the Confederation of Agricultural and Forestry Producers Juha Marttila called the Helsinki decision green washing.

Center Party Secretary Riikka Pirkkalainen in turn, pointed out on Twitter that the decision is sad if it also applies to domestic meat. It applies, says Sarvilinna.

According to Sarvilinna, the customer base of the City of Helsinki is not so significant for the meat industry that it would really affect its result. On the other hand, the message given by the City of Helsinki is specifically intended to reduce the use of meat.

“Now a certain amount of domestic meat is left unused. Hopefully, the signal effect of the decision will guide other organizations as well, as this is the background of the council’s policy on combating climate change, ”says Sarvilinna.

Sarvilinna means a decision by the city council to reduce emissions in February 2019. According to the decision, the use of dairy and meat products is to be halved by 2025.