Trump Administration Urged to Consider Sustainability, Climate, Accessibility in New U.S. Dietary Guidelines

The Center for Biological Diversity is urging the federal committee that will soon finalize its recommendations on the 2020 national dietary guidelines to include assessments of food sustainability, climate and accessibility in its report to the Trump administration.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, updated every five years, are intended to protect public health and food security. The document serves as a government-approved blueprint for healthy diets and is widely used in nutrition-education programs and to set meal plans for government institutions, including schools, prisons, military facilities and federal cafeterias.

“The pandemic has vividly exposed how our current industry-friendly system prevents equal access to sustainable, healthy, safe foods,” said Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the Center. “Amid the current COVID-19 crisis and the escalating extinction and climate emergencies, we can’t afford for these important dietary guidelines to be just another gift to the meat and dairy industry.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.