US Dietary Guidelines Ignore the Climate Crisis

The US government's dietary guidelines for 2020–2025 are heavily focused on meat and dairy. Experts say this is not sustainable

To keep the climate livable, most scientists agree that transitioning to renewable energy alone is not enough — Americans must also change their dietary habits. Environmental and health advocates are pushing for a new strategy to achieve this goal: incorporating climate considerations into the official US dietary guidelines, which determine what is eaten in billions of meals across the country every year.

Every five years, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly publish a new version of the guidelines. They form the basis for the publicly accessible dietary guide MyPlate, formerly MyPyramid, as well as for many government-supported food programs, such as the National School Lunch program. In the past, these guidelines have focused closely on human nutrition, but some are now calling for them to be extended to include climate-related aspects as well.

The current 150-page edition for 2020–2025 makes no mention whatsoever of the role of diet in the climate crisis. Climate groups consider this a neglect of responsibility, as Americans are feeling the effects of a warming planet more than ever. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, the most significant climate legislation in US history, addresses the food system only marginally.

Climate change poses a wide range of threats to human health and food security. We cannot separate these issues from one another.

Jessi Silverman, a senior policy associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest

Her organization and 39 others, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote a letter in May urging the government to incorporate sustainability into the 2025–2030 dietary guidelines currently being developed.

A sustainability component would encourage Americans to eat less meat and dairy, which have a significantly higher climate impact than comparable plant-based foods. «It would be virtually impossible to stay within the two-degree limit for global temperature rise without substantially reducing beef consumptionn», said Mark Rifkin, senior food and agriculture policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, another signatory of the letter.

Current guidelines advise Americans to eat far more animal products than is sustainable, said Walter Willett, professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. The main dietary table recommends 26 ounces of protein from meat, poultry, and eggs per week, compared to just 5 ounces from plant-based foods, although there are alternative tables showing how vegetarians can obtain the same nutrients without meat. Furthermore, «they are essentially still recommending three servings of dairy per day, which is actually quite radical, given that our current consumption stands at 1.6 servings per day», he said. Recommending just three servings of dairy and saying nothing about the environmental consequences if people actually do that is simply completely irresponsible.

Since most Americans are deficient in fiber, fruits, and vegetables rather than animal products, a climate-oriented recommendation would align with the population's nutritional needs, said Rifkin, a nutrition scientist. It would also help address other problems arising from the meat-heavy U.S. food system, Rifkin noted, including the risk of future pandemics, food safety, and pollution from factory farming, which disproportionately affects communities of color.

A questionnaire published in April for the scientific panel advising on the guidelines contained no questions about sustainability. This concerns advocates, but they say it is still too early. Janet de Jesus, the Health Department official responsible for the guidelines, said that the topic of sustainability could still be included.

According to a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, countries such as Germany, Brazil, Sweden, and Qatar have incorporated sustainability into their dietary guidelines. Canada's food guide recommends choosing plant-based foods more often for environmental reasons. Germany has reduced its per capita meat consumption by 12% since 2011, as Vox reported last month, and its Minister of Food and Agriculture recently emphasized a shift toward a plant-based diet.

The agricultural industry has long exerted influence over dietary guidelines, and it will undoubtedly be a factor this time as well. The meat and dairy industries spent $49.5 million on political donations in 2020 and a further $15.9 million on lobbying the federal government.

Even if environmentalists face an uphill battle, much has changed since the failed attempt in 2015 to include sustainability, according to Jessi Silverman of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. «I think public pressure to take concrete action on climate change has grown significantly in recent years.