Newly proposed U.S. dietary guidelines should include meat and dairy reductions to create a sustainable food system in the United States that helps curb climate change, reduce environmental destruction and protect wildlife, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, currently in the process of reviewing scientific evidence and public comments for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, is taking sustainability concerns into account for the first time.

If Americans followed the current dietary guidelines, it would result in a 12 percent increase in diet-related greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to increased dairy consumption, according to a new study by University of Michigan researchers published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology this month.

“Study after study points to livestock production as a key driver of climate change, habitat loss and other threats to wildlife and the planet,” said Stephanie Feldstein, director of the population and sustainability program at the Center. “We simply can’t achieve sustainable food systems through organic produce or eating local alone — addressing our oversized appetite for meat and dairy has to be part of the picture.”

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