In an Associated Press article by Mary Clare Jalonick (published in The Corning (NY) Leader on 1/3/15 ) “Beef gets downplayed in new dietary guidelines,” we are warned that we will “be told not only what foods are better for your own health, but also for the environment”…. and that means a push “for people to choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and other plant-based foods — at the expense of meat.” Of course the beef industry is “crying foul, saying an environmental agenda has no place in what has always been a practical blueprint for a healthy lifestyle.”
Whew! Talk about euphemisms for saying things should be done in an ignorant vacuum. First of all you can bet if it were the case that cattle-raising was instead good for the environment, the beef people would welcome this additional consideration rather than condemn it.
If we care about the health of future generations – which is what concern for the environment centers on – it is absurd to leave it out of any guideline.
The beef industry’s friends in Congress have called on the dietary guidelines committee “to only include nutrition and dietary information, not extraneous factors.” If environmental issues are extraneous, these people must have homes on other planets.
The article goes on to say that “The meat industry has fought for years to ensure that the dietary guidelines do not call for eating less meat.” This in spite of heavy evidence that meat raises the risk of heart disease (the leading killer of Americans). Are these the people we are going to trust this industry’s spokespersons when constructing “a practical blueprint for a healthy lifestyle”? Healthy for their pocketbooks maybe.
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