“Don’t eat your children’s food!” - These are the words of Dr. David Katz, founding Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, written to describe a very important recommendation made by the scientists tasked with updating the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

For the first time ever, the scientific committee recommended that the government link environmental sustainability along with health and dietary guidance in the 2015 guidelines. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee found that it is necessary to take steps towards reducing the environmental impact of our diets today in order to secure American’s needs for healthy food both now and in the future.

Crucially, they found that there is a large overlap between healthy and sustainable diets, and that both can be achieved with a variety of dietary patterns.

“A diet higher in plant-based foods, such
as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in calories and animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with less environmental impact than is
the current U.S. diet … in terms of increased greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, and energy use.”

“A diet that is more environmentally sustainable than the average U.S. diet can be achieved… through a variety of dietary patterns” without excluding any food groups. - Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

Incorporating the fundamental connections between human and planetary health, and integrating the latest science on environmental sustainability into nutritional guidelines would set a precedent for U.S. and international food policy.

What’s on the table?

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans matter because they have the potential to change what millions of Americans eat every day. The guidelines have a significant impact on the U.S. food system, informing all federal food, nutrition or health programs. If the committee’s recommendations are included in the final report they would influence a number of government food programs, including the Federal School Lunch Program, which affects $16 billion dollars  in spending and 5.5 billion lunches  served to school children annually.

Dietary advice that ignores this new reality, is by default, advising that we eat away at the quality of our future and our future diets. Or, as Dr. Katz puts it:

“If, in an age when we know that food and water shortages are clear and present dangers, we choose to ignore them in our dietary guidelines, then these are not dietary guidelines for “Americans,” as they claim to be. They are, instead, dietary guidelines for “the current generation of American adults,” and at the obvious expense of all subsequent generations of American (and planetary) adults – including, of course, our children.”  - Dr. David Katz

However, setting dietary guidelines at the expense of future generations, is exactly the problem at hand. Despite the evidence put forth and the recommendations made by the scientists on the advisory committee, the two government agencies responsible for jointly publishing the dietary guidelines (USDA and HHS) are under no legal obligation to heed their advice, and are currently under an intense onslaught of industry pressure to ignore their science based recommendations.

As a result, right now this opportunity for a seismic shift in food policy is balanced on a knife edge and could go either way. On the one hand, industry has already mustered letters from 30 senators and 70 members of congress. But on the other hand, citizens and civil society are now rising up to protect our nation’s food supply and call for sustainable and healthy food choices for all.

On March 23rd, more than 100 environmental and public health groups and thought leaders came together to publish a joint-statement to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Health, supporting the science advisory recommendations under the banner of My Plate My Planet, Food for a Sustainable Nation. The joint-statement was supported by a wide variety of environmental groups like The Sierra Club, NRDC, Conservation International, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace alongside public health and academic leaders such as Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, Yale Sustainable Food Program, Marion Nestle, Raj Patel, Dean Ornish, and thought leaders such as James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron, John Robbins, Eric Schlosser and Laurie David. Since then, more organizations and leaders have joined and worked together to mobilize public comments on the guidelines.

In 2010, there were a total of 1,200 public comments on the dietary guidelines. So far this year there have been over 22,000 comments, with the great majority regarding sustainability!

What’s on our plates?

In our democratic nation, every voice matters. Citizens are rising up to protect our nation’s food supply and call for sustainable and healthy food choices for all. For all of us wondering what we can do to support a healthy and sustainable future for our families, there is something urgent that we can do to make a difference. Go to My Plate My Planet, and lend your voice today before Midnight May 8th, in support of the science-based, sustainable Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This really can help tip the balance! 

Do you think America’s dietary guidelines should be set in the public-interest, based on the latest independent science, to help Americans lead long, healthy lives, and enable agriculture to provide us healthy food, both today and into the future? It’s your choice, and it’s your voice.

Please take action now.

Sign the momsrising.org petition HERE and submit your comments to the Health.gov website via our simple form HERE.