WASHINGTON— The Dietary Guidelines for Americans shapes more than $40 billion in federal spending, with sweeping impacts on food-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released today by the Center for Biological Diversity. Yet the upcoming rewrite of the guidelines is unlikely to directly address environmental sustainability.
Today’s analysis found that if half the meals served through the Department of Agriculture’s child nutrition programs alone switched from beef to beans, such as by serving bean tacos instead of beef tacos, those meals would produce 48.7% less greenhouse gas pollution.
“We’re talking about billions of meals shaped by the dietary guidelines, so they have to start focusing on sustainability and curbing food-related climate pollution,” said Leah Kelly, food and agriculture policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Meat and dairy products’ harmful effects on climate change and the environment are clear, and more plant-rich meals would be good for kids’ health too. Reforming the dietary guidelines is crucial to meeting our climate targets.”
Federal food assistance programs required by law to follow the dietary guidelines serve 9 billion meals to children and hundreds of millions more meals to adults every year, the analysis found.
Today’s analysis was released as the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee published its scientific report, which will be used by the USDA and Health and Human Services to draft the 2025-2030 guidelines.
Despite overwhelming public support and mounting evidence of the importance of including sustainability in dietary guidance, the agencies prevented the advisory committee from exploring the topic. However, the report’s emphasis on prioritizing beans, peas, and lentils as a healthy protein source and reducing meat, poultry, and eggs is consistent with a climate-friendly dietary pattern.
The Center’s analysis found that pollution savings would be even greater if two-thirds of federal meals substituted bean tacos for beef tacos, reducing emissions by 65% — the equivalent of taking more than 4.2 million gas-powered cars off the road for one year.
The analysis also found that switching half of meals from chicken to tofu could reduce emissions by 44.5% and switching half of the milk served from cow’s milk to soy milk could reduce emissions by 38.1%.
“There’s no time to waste in adopting the committee’s recommendation to reduce meat consumption and shift toward plant protein sources. The U.S. is already lagging behind other countries and the science when it comes to sustainable diets,” said Kelly. “We can’t afford to wait another five years for climate-friendly guidelines.”
The Center previously released an analysis showing that most G20 nations’ dietary guidelines include sustainability goals and recommendations to shift toward plant-rich diets. But for the past 10 years, the USDA and HSS have ignored calls — including from their own advisory committees — to integrate sustainability into the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The guidelines’ scope extends far beyond child nutrition programs. It has broad influence on federal food assistance programs that serve other groups. It also shapes the internal food service policies and menus for federal agencies, state and local nutrition standards and procurement policies, and the diets followed by many health industry organizations, health and nutrition practitioners, and regular Americans.
The 60-day public comment period to respond to the advisory committee’s scientific report opens on Dec. 11. The public is also invited to present oral comments at a virtual meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025 (pre-registration is required). After the public comment period closes, the agencies will finalize the updated guidelines for release in 2025.
