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Dietary Guidelines process far from over

Reports that the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is suggesting Americans eat less red meat due to environmental concerns do not come as a surprise to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

Colin Woodall of NCBA says they’ve been monitoring that committee’s work for the past year and were well aware that the sustainability issue was being discussed.  And while the committee’s draft report is concerning, Woodall says, it is certainly not the end of the process.

“The scientific review body is only one part of the equation in working on the Dietary Guidelines, so USDA will have the opportunity to review their recommendation and make any changes that they need to make,” Woodall says. “On top of that, we do know that our friends in Congress are also going to be interested in asking Secretary Vilsack some very pointed questions about how he’s going to move forward.”

The final Dietary Guidelines recommendations will have to be approved by the heads of USDA and Health and Human Services.

“I think it would be really hard for a Secretary of Agriculture to make a sweeping set of changes to the Dietary Guidelines that would take out meat—but especially lean beef—and be able to answer to his constituents,” Woodall says. “Unfortunately, we think this is an area where not all the facts were adequately utilized and the environmental agenda trumped sound science in this review process.”

The dietary guidelines are issued every five years. Once they are complete, they will be reflected in USDA’s MyPlate icon, which replaced the traditional Food Pyramid in 2011.

AUDIO: Colin Woodall

Brownfield’s Tom Steever contributed to this story.