The Director of Food Policy with the National Pork Producers Council says the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recognises meat as a nutritious product that Americans should be prioritizing, will influence nutrition globally. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in January will guide federal nutrition policies, education programs and food assistance initiatives for the next five years.
Dr. Ashley Johnson, the Director of Food Policy with the National Pork Producers Council, says the new guidelines recognise the importance of meat protein reversing a decades long shift away from meat-based proteins to plant-based proteins.
Quote-Dr. Ashley Johnson-National Pork Producers Council:
The DGAs actually will touch every American in some way, a family member and some of the big programs. We think about are our school meals programs. Every school has to follow the DGAs and SNAP recipients, WIC, our veteran’s meal programs, our military, our prisons, our indigenous tribes, a lot of those, they all have to follow the DGAs.
The other really important thing, too, is the U.S. DGAs actually influence what the world puts out.We have a lot of conversations with others globally because right now the global conversation is still reduction of meat, replacing with plant-based.Because we flipped the script, literally flipped that pyramid upside down, there's going to be other countries that are looking towards us as the leaders in that space. And so, this could have a really great cascade effect, not just here in the U.S., but also globally.
Dr. Johnson says this is the first positive development for meat since 1980.She suggests this is actually a very exciting time for the pork sector when it comes to nutrition because meat is back and it's back stronger than ever.For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Source : Farmscape.ca