The “greening” of public procurement is a very topical and prominent example of the extent to which the policy boundaries are being stretched.
In this instance, as reported by the Irish Examiner, the objective is to drive the use of “healthier” organic foods into the provision of public canteen and other provision.
The justification is “you can’t bang on about healthy eating and not take concrete steps to improve the quality of the food you provide yourself”.
There is a clear, universal policy objective to achieve healthier dietary and eating habits. Should that “horizontal” social policy be implemented via public procurement?