For the Inaugural Fantastic Friday Seminar of the school year, President Mim Nelson will be presentingThe Sustainable Plate Through the Lens of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans! 

Abstract: Based nutrition policy is a key mechanism to promote planetary health. In the USA, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are the foundation of nutrition policy and guide more than US$80 billion in federal spending. Recent attempts have been made to incorporate sustainability into the development of the Dietary Guidelines. However, the sustainability of the 2015–20 Dietary Guidelines remains unclear; research has not yet assessed the environmental impacts of the distinct healthy patterns recommended by the policy. In this modelling study done at the University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH, USA), we analysed the healthy US-style (US), healthy Mediterranean-style (MED), and healthy vegetarian (VEG) patterns recommended in the 2015–20 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Food groups and subgroups consisted of 321 commonly consumed foods, with group composition predetermined by the US Department of Agriculture. We compiled and used multiple datasets to assign environmental burdens to foods, focusing on six impact categories of policy importance: global warming potential, land use, water depletion, freshwater and marine eutrophication, and particulate matter or respiratory organics. We did life cycle impact assessments for each of the three diet patterns and compared the six impact categories between the patterns. We also analysed the proportion contribution of the food groups to each impact category in each of the diet patterns. The US and MED patterns had similar impacts, except for freshwater eutrophication. Freshwater eutrophication was 31% lower in the US pattern than the MED pattern, primarily due to increased seafood in the MED pattern. All three patterns had similar water depletion impacts, with fruits and vegetables as major contributors. For five of the six impacts, the VEG pattern had 42–84% lower burdens than both the US and MED patterns. Reliance on plant-based protein and eggs in the VEG pattern versus emphasis on animal-based protein in the other patterns was a key driver of differences, as was a lower overall protein foods recommendation in the VEG pattern. The recommended patterns in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans might have starkly different impacts on the environment and other dimensions of human health beyond nutrition. Given the scale of influence of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on food systems, incorporating sustainability into their development has the potential to have great benefit in terms of long-term food security. 

Biography: Miriam Nelson, Ph.D. was named Hampshire’s seventh president in April 2018 and began her tenure on July 1. A health and nutrition scholar, scientist, and government policy adviser, she served on the Tufts University faculty for 25 years (currently emerita). At the Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life, she was chair of the faculty and founded the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. She has published more than 100 scholarly papers and mentored graduate and graduate students; was health and nutrition adviser to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture; and authored the New York Times bestselling ten-book series Strong Women. Most recently, she was the director of the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire, and has called sustainability “a collective commitment to human dignity for all people and ecological integrity in all places. It is rooted in an intergenerational, ethical obligation to social justice, collaboration, and inclusive prosperity.” Mim is married to Kinloch Earle, a classical violinist, and they have three grown children.

Fantastic Friday is a weekly seminar where either faculty, student(s), a class, or a visiting lecturer gives a presentation/talk about their research or other academic project. As the name implies, this takes place Fridays, from noon until 1pm, in Cole Science Rm 333. Lunch is always provided; for this presentation, the food will be pizza (vegan and GF options will be available).