A ROW of gastronomic proportions has erupted in France after Lyon removed meat from school dinner menus.

Lyon City Hall said the new menus are temporary and it is quicker to serve socially distanced lunches with fewer options, but that hasn’t stopped farmers driving goats and cattle through the streets with banners saying “meat from our fields = a healthy child” and “stopping meat guarantees weakness against coronaviruses to come.”

French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said: “From a nutritional point of view, it is absurd to stop serving meat. 

“From a social point of view, it is shameful.”

He accused Lyon’s Mayor Gregory Doucet of “putting ideology on our children’s plates.”

Mr Doucet denied being a vegetarian, describing himself as a “flexitarian,” and said offering a seated hot meal to all children was the priority. “This is Lyon, the capital of gastronomy,” he said. “For us, flavour is also essential.”