Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) demands a ban on new fastfood chains. Councillor Jonas Rothaans argues for a maximum in the Eindhoven municipality and a strict licensing system of new catering establishments. The political party will soon table a motion on this in a council meeting.
KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and Dunkin Donuts are examples of fast food chains that have branches in the Eindhoven city centre. And if it is up to Councillor Roothans, no new ones will be added. “They are multinationals, and that money won’t stay in Eindhoven. On the contrary, we want the local economy to be stimulated. Besides, we are not talking about healthy food. This does not stimulate health.”
In the future, Rothaans, therefore, wants the licensing of new catering establishments to be carefully considered. “This plan has already been thrown up in the Tweede Kamer (Lower House) to impose requirements on the number of fast-food chains in municipalities, only now there are none. In any case, the state secretary is working on the plan.”
International fast food firms, not local snack bars
Roothans stresses that it is about banning new branches of fast food chains in Eindhoven. “In a conversation with alderman Monique Esselbrugge (centre development, D66), she informed me that she doesn’t want to let it be known that there are too many or too few fast-food chains established in Eindhoven but that there should be enough choices for healthy eating.”
Legally, it is not yet possible to ban fast food chains. State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen of Health, Welfare and Sport has already indicated in a letter to the Lower House in late 2022 that municipalities should be allowed to ban unhealthy food providers in certain places. What that plan should look like will become clear later.
For now, the motion that the Party for the Animals will submit is only about multinationals and not about local snack bars and other unhealthy food providers.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Martijn
