Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack indicated during an interview that he will not consider environmental sustainability during an overhaul of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, said the Wall Street Journal. Vilsack said he read the statute creating the guidelines — the government’s advice on healthy eating — “and what I read … was that our job ultimately is to formulate dietary and nutrition guidelines. I think it’s my responsibility to follow the law,” Vilsack told the Journal. The new edition of the guidelines is expected later this year.
A panel of experts selected by the USDA and the Health and Human Services Department, who have joint responsibility for the guidelines, said in its report, “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 a recent funding bill, Congress instructed federal agencies not to consider environmental questions when drafting the 2015 guidelines.