Goals
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to…
- 📰 Present a food trend from an online press article (RTL).
- 🎧 Analyse a radio chronicle (Virginie Garin on RTL) and fill in a chart of 7 food trends projected to 2030.
- 📖 Understand a dystopian literary extract on food consumption (Natasha Karpenian, Je suis le gros aux fesses).
- 🧠 Master the futur antérieur (future perfect) to express an action completed before another future action.
- 🥗 Use precise vocabulary on food: diets, modes of consumption, alternatives to meat.
- ✍️ Describe a new mode of food consumption in 180-220 words (À nous, act. 11).
- 🇫🇷🇺🇸 Compare French and US food cultures heading into 2030.
Document 1 · The RTL article 📰
RTL is one of the major French private radio stations. Its website also publishes articles written by its on-air journalists. The following article goes with a radio chronicle (which you'll listen to next) on how the French will eat in 2030. The research firm AlimAvenir ("Future Food") has drawn the portrait of the "2030 eater".
SOCIÉTÉ
Bio, végétarisme, flexitarisme… Comment les Français mangeront-ils demain ?
Vous commanderez vos repas sur Internet ou vous les imprimerez en 3D ? Le cabinet AlimAvenir dresse le portrait du mangeur de 2030.
✏️ Activity 1 · Observe the web page
- List three visual elements it includes: .
- What is the link between the photo (a dish) and the chronicle theme? .
- The subtitle asks two provocative questions. Quote one: .
The radio chronicle 🎧
The chronicle is hosted by Virginie Garin, an "Environment & Consumer" journalist at RTL. She decodes the 7 food trends to watch by 2030. Before the chronicle itself, you'll hear the opening (the anchor and the co-hosts Marina and Pauline).
Bio, végétarisme, flexitarisme… 2030
✏️ Activity 2 · The opening
Listen to the opening (extract 1) and answer.
- Does the anchor capture the co-hosts' interest?
- What did Marina eat last night? .
- What concrete question does the anchor ask Marina about the future? .
The 7 food trends of 2030
Re-listen to Virginie Garin's chronicle and complete the chart below. (Book activity 4, p. 14.)
✏️ Activity 3 · Fill in the chart
| Trend | Projected evolution by 2030 | Explanations / details |
|---|---|---|
| Eating insects | ||
| Online food shopping | ||
| Organic (le bio) | ||
| Local / short supply chains | ||
| Urban farms | ||
| Vegetarianism | ||
| Flexitarianism |
👉 Bonus question: according to the journalist, which is the strongest trend? Which is the weakest? Justify. .
Insects
Niche · cultural barrier. eating insects
Online shopping
Drive, delivery, smart cart. e-grocery
Bio
Mainstream, health-driven. organic food
Local
Short chains, traceability. farm-to-table
Urban farms
Rooftop crops. urban farming
Vegetarianism
Stable · animal welfare. vegetarian
Flexitarianism
★ Strong 2030 trend. flexitarian
Document 2 · Je suis le gros aux fesses 📖
Here is an extract from the novel « Je suis le gros aux fesses » ("I am the fat one") by Natasha Karpenian (fictional Cosmopolite edition, 2030). The narrator — Sarah, a journalist in Paris — describes a business dinner at a futuristic restaurant where meat has become a luxury product. The tone is satirical and biting.
1 Le restaurant Trapèze s'est ouvert en 2028, juste après la taxe carbone sur la viande. Depuis, les Parisiens y viennent comme on irait au musée : pour voir, par nostalgie, une côte de bœuf encore servie sur une vraie assiette. À la table voisine, un quinquagénaire en costume gris fait son cinéma — il soulève son verre, hume, repose, ferme les yeux. Pour cinquante euros de plus, on a le droit de toucher la viande avant qu'elle ne soit cuite.
9 Marc, mon collègue, commande une aiguillette de poulet à l'algue. Moi, je prends le plat-signature : un steak imprimé en 3D, à base de protéines de pois et de hareng séché. C'est rose, ça brille, ça a la texture d'un steak — et au fond, ça en a aussi le goût. « Tu auras fini par t'y habituer » rigole Marc. « Dans dix ans, on aura oublié que la viande, ça venait d'animaux. »
17 Je regarde autour de moi. Les clients du Trapèze, c'est toujours le même profil : des cadres qui auront travaillé toute la semaine pour s'offrir, le vendredi soir, ce dernier rituel carné. Entre eux, ils s'observent comme des bêtes : qui mange quoi, qui paie quoi, qui touche ou pas. Un jour, ne t'inquiète pas, tu feras toi aussi la queue avec trois bouteilles bio parce que tu auras pris conscience de la dangerosité de tous ces aliments qui, aujourd'hui, règnent en maître dans ton caddie. Tu mincirais, tu ferais du sport et tu ne pourras plus regarder une côte de bœuf sans penser aux souffrances qu'a subies le bœuf pour en arriver là.
27 Ce soir-là, j'ai mangé mon steak imprimé jusqu'à la dernière bouchée. J'avais faim. Et puis, dans dix ans, je serai bien contente d'avoir déjà appris à aimer ça. Le gros, ce sera moi.
N. Karpenian, Je suis le gros aux fesses, fictional. (Based on doc. 2 of Cosmopolite 4, p. 15.)
✏️ Activity 4 · The literary extract (lines 1-26)
Based on the extract above.
- How does the narrator describe the relationships between Trapèze's customers? (1 word) .
- Why do Parisians go to the Trapèze? .
- Quote two verbs in the future perfect from the extract (e.g. "tu auras pris"): .
- What prediction does the narrator make about herself at the end? .
Vocabulary · Food
🥗 Diets & modes of consumption
🦗 Alternatives to meat
📊 Evolution & prediction verbs
🍴 At the 2030 restaurant (novel extract)
Focus Langue · The future perfect (futur antérieur)
Re-read these sentences from the novel extract:
- « Tu auras fini par t'y habituer. »
- « Dans dix ans, on aura oublié que la viande, ça venait d'animaux. »
- « Tu auras pris conscience de la dangerosité… »
All these verb forms are in the futur antérieur — the French future perfect. This tense expresses a future action that will be completed BEFORE another future action. It maps directly to English "will have + past participle".
| Construction | Formula | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| With avoir | avoir (future) + past participle | Tu auras pris conscience. · On aura oublié. (You will have become aware. · We will have forgotten.) |
| With être | être (future) + past participle | En 2030, le bio sera devenu la norme. (By 2030, organic will have become the norm.) |
| Reflexive verb | se + être (future) + p.p. | Les habitudes se seront généralisées. (Habits will have become widespread.) |
⏱ Timeline
"Once you have understood the danger, you will eat differently."
🎯 Three main uses
1. Anteriority within the future (the most frequent use):
(When I have finished this book, I'll lend it to you.)
2. Accomplishment / stock-taking at a future date:
3. Hypothesis / supposition about a past event (formal):
The French futur antérieur matches English "will have + past participle" almost exactly. The catch: after quand / lorsque / dès que, French requires futur antérieur while English uses the present perfect: "When you have eaten insects, you'll understand" → « Quand tu auras mangé des insectes, tu comprendras. » Don't use « quand tu manges » or « quand tu as mangé » — both are wrong here.
Practise 🏋️
🧩 Exercise 1 · Conjugate in the future perfect
Put the verb in brackets into the futur antérieur.
- En 2030, le bio .
- Dans dix ans, nous le goût d'une vraie côte de bœuf.
- Quand tu le steak imprimé, tu changeras d'avis.
- D'ici 2050, la viande de laboratoire moins chère que la viande classique.
- Les insectes une niche, par barrière culturelle.
- Une fois que vous une ferme urbaine, vous comprendrez l'enjeu.
🧩 Exercise 2 · Express anteriority in the future
Rewrite the sentence with quand / dès que / une fois que + futur antérieur.
- D'abord je finis mes études, ensuite je voyage en France.
→ Dès que , je voyagerai en France. - D'abord il prend conscience du problème, ensuite il change ses habitudes.
→ Quand , il changera ses habitudes. - D'abord nous goûtons la viande imprimée, ensuite nous donnons notre avis.
→ Une fois que , nous donnerons notre avis. - D'abord les Français diminuent leur consommation de viande, ensuite le climat s'améliore.
→ Quand , le climat s'améliorera.
🧩 Exercise 3 · 2030 — future stock-taking
Imagine evolutions by 2030. Complete with a logical future perfect.
- D'ici 2030, le nombre de végétariens en France.
- En 2030, les fermes urbaines sur les toits des villes.
- Avant 2035, la malbouffe des cantines scolaires.
- Quand mes enfants seront adultes, ils à manger éco-responsable.
✍️ Exercise 4 · 2030 food trend — argued text (180-220 words) — 🤖 AI-corrected
Topic: « Imaginez un nouveau mode de consommation alimentaire
qui se sera imposé en France d'ici 2030. Décrivez-le et expliquez ce
qui aura changé dans la vie des Français. »
(Imagine a new mode of food consumption that will have become
dominant in France by 2030. Describe it and explain what will have
changed in French daily life. From book act. 5, p. 14.)
Use at least: 3 futur antérieur verbs, 3 futur simple
verbs, 5 words from the lesson's vocabulary. Write in French.
Over to us! Describe a food trend
Based on book act. 11 (p. 15). Follow this group path.
🎤 4-step path
1. Choose a mode of consumption you appreciate or condemn (flexitarianism, organic, fast food, ultra-processed, local, junk food, intermittent fasting…).
2. Describe it in 5-6 sentences: what it is, who practises it, why it's rising or fading.
3. Project to 2030: use 3 futur antérieur forms to say what will have changed by then.
4. Present to the class: each group presents, the others write down the 3 keywords that define the trend.
🎙 Oral prep notes (submit to Olivier)
Write here the 5-6 key sentences you'll use during your oral, including at least 2 futur antérieur verbs. Write in French.
Culture · Food 2030 🇫🇷 vs 🇺🇸
France and the United States both face a food revolution, but they don't start from the same place. Let's compare.
🇫🇷 France in 2030
After the carbon tax on meat (passed in 2027), flexitarianism will become the norm. Urban farms will sprout on the rooftops of big cities (Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux). Organic will represent 40 % of the market, up from 14 % in 2025.
Edible insects, despite EU authorisation, will stay a niche — cultural barrier. Supermarkets will lose ground to AMAP (community-supported agriculture cooperatives).
flexitarismeAMAP bioshort supply chains carbon tax🇺🇸 The United States in 2030
The US is the world champion of food tech (Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Upside Foods). By 2030, plant-based and lab-grown meat will be more than 15 % of the meat market. Food delivery (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) will be the default for urban dwellers.
But the obesity epidemic remains a huge social divide. The "food desert" phenomenon (no fresh food in poor neighbourhoods) will persist. Carnivore diets (huge steaks, "raw meat" wellness influencers) push back against plant-based trends — a real political fault line.
Beyond MeatImpossible Foods food desertDoorDash carnivore diet🤔 Class debate
By 2030, who will have been the greenest: France (with regulations and short supply chains) or the United States (with tech and plant-based imitation meat)? What will YOU eat in 2030? Answer in French, using at least two verbs in the futur antérieur.
Bravo! Lesson 2 done.
You can now: analyse a radio chronicle, read a dystopian literary extract, and use the futur antérieur to describe how society will evolve. Next stop: Vacances, nouvelle vague and contrast / concession.