by The red meat industry has questioned the environmental impact, accessibility and affordability of food being included in new official nutritional advice.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is reviewing guidelines about what Australians should eat to meet nutritional requirements.
During its background work, the independent statutory agency identified dietary patterns, processed foods, nutritional needs at different times of life, and protein-rich foods as priority areas of research.
He also identified sustainable diets, which he defined as accessible, affordable and fair with low environmental impacts, as a very high priority for consideration.
But some farmers, such as Australian Beef Sustainability Framework chairman Mark Davie, want more information about how that sustainability will be measured.
“We think the role of the guidelines should be focusing on nutrition first,” he said.
The central Queensland grazier said Australia’s current Dietary Guidelines, in place since 2013, recognized the complexities of sustainability.
But he was not confident that the review would do the same.
What is involved
The guidelines are mainly used by health professionals, policy makers, food retailers and manufacturers.
They seek to provide evidence-based information on the types and amounts of foods, food groups, and dietary patterns to promote health and reduce the risk of diet-related conditions.
Revising them is a multi-year process that began in 2020 and the new version is expected to be released in 2026.
An NHMRC spokesman said applications were currently open for people to join the working group that would advise the committee on sustainability.
“Farmers and farming organizations have an important role to play, especially given their knowledge of food production,” said the spokesperson.
Once the evidence has been analysed, draft guidelines will be written and released for public consultation, followed by independent expert review, before being made official.
“All interested parties, including farmers and farming organisations, will have the opportunity to comment on the draft guidelines,” said the spokesperson.
But John McKillop, independent chairman of the Red Meat Advisory Council, which represents producers and advises on policy, said the diet committee should not be advising the environment.
“You may as well have the Bureau of Meteorology start issuing nutritional guidelines along with the weather forecast. It’s not their remit to do it,” he said.
On its website, the NHMRC said the expert committee was appointed “based on their expertise in areas such as evidence transfer, epidemiology, research methodology, food and health relationships, and nutrition communication”.
He said that sustainability was intended to be addressed through a separate process from other research priorities.
Carbon on the table
In 2017, research and marketing firm Meat and Livestock Australia set a target to become carbon neutral by 2030, spending more than $200 million on projects to reduce methane emissions and improve sustainable yields.
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Mr Davie said that when assessing the sustainability of red meat, practices such as feeding waste to cattle needed to be identified.
“There are cattle in restaurants that eat the surplus biscuits that would be thrown out of food factories,” he said.
“We cycle things like the byproducts of the wine industry through cattle because it’s full of micronutrients that we can upcycle back into food products.”
He said that on-farm biodiversity and the dependence of regional communities on certain food production should also be considered important for sustainability.
An NHMRC spokesman said evidence of farmers and farming organizations working on sustainability, and the role of the industry in the wider community, would be included.
“Contextual factors are considered as part of standard guideline development,” the spokesperson said.
“The NHMRC standards for developing guidelines require all guideline writers to consider the evidence and other factors that influence decision-making.”
This included benefits and harms, values and preferences, resource use and acceptability.
Expressions of interest to join the Sustainability Working Group to advise on the guidelines are open until 5 March.
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