By Gregory D. Miller, PhD, MACN, National Dairy Council

Sustainable nutrition is more than access to food; it addresses the long-term issue of health and well-being by including nutrition from a variety of nutrient-dense foods that provide nutrients needed to help improve inadequate intake and optimize health. To solve for nutrition on a global scale it takes the right foods, affordability, accessibility, science, coordination and commitment to a long-term sustainable food system.

Sustainable nutrition is a developing discipline, but a consensus is forming that envisions a sustainable food system as giving the world the opportunity to address poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and health outcomes — while being mindful of minimizing environmental impacts. This understanding builds upon an awareness that people often rely on measures of sustainability that are too narrow to capture the range of challenges to be tackled and benefits that need to be achieved. It is a symbiotic relationship that includes people, communities and the planet combined with factors such as science and innovation, economic viability and social considerations such as health and wellness to protect the environment and its inhabitants today and tomorrow.

As science evolves, we are gaining a broader understanding of what needs to happen to tackle the food, nutrition, health and wellness dimension of sustainability. Nutrition includes water, carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals — all critical to health. Let’s focus on one of these important nutrients — protein.

Protein is an essential nutrient needed by the body. In times of hunger and starvation, protein needs and the overall calories needed to allow the body to use protein for its intended functions versus for energy is critically important. High quality sources of protein provide the essential building blocks (i.e., indispensable amino acids, those we cannot produce ourselves) needed for a healthy body. Low-fat and fat-free dairy foods and ingredients such as milk, whey protein, cheese and yogurt are good sources of high quality protein, and are an important piece of the complex puzzle that helps make up a nutritionally adequate and accessible diet that can be affordable and foster health and well-being.

Additionally, the dairy food group contains a number of essential nutrients important to health such as calcium, protein, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins A, D, B12, riboflavin and niacin (niacin equivalents). Dairy foods (i.e., milk and cheese) and ingredients can help nourish those who are food insecure because they provide can significant nutrition relative to cost. A gallon of nutrient-rich milk in the US contains 16, 8-ounce servings for about 25 cents per serving, making it an affordable solution, especially given it provides a host of additional nutrients such as calcium, potassium, phosphorus and vitamins A, D and B12.

Here in America, milk is one of the top five foods most requested by the clients of Feeding America, the nationwide network of food banks.¹ Milk is also one of the least available to those who need it most, and most food banks cannot keep up with demand as it is rarely donated. The dairy community, in partnership with Feeding America and others such as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, are working on solutions to help food pantries gain access to more nutrient-rich foods such as milk. Approximately one in 6 households face hunger in the US and poor nutrition is associated with 45 percent of deaths among children under 5 years old globally.² As we all work together to find solutions to improve hunger and malnutrition, it is important to understand what those who serve the food insecure are experiencing and need in order to help improve the system.

International demand for dairy products has grown so significantly that US dairy farmers—among the worlds’ most efficient and sustainable—are actively making efforts to meet it. There are new facilities opening in California, Nevada and Washington to meet the growing demand for milk powder and whey protein. This will help the US increase exports to help meet the nutritional demands of an overall growing population, including those who are food insecure.

Individuals and organizations in the US and globally understand the nutritional value dairy foods and ingredients contribute to nourishing the food insecure as well as the broader population. The progress of US dairy farmers, importers and the dairy community to be more sustainable while providing this nutrient-rich food group is an ongoing process. The fact that milk and milk products and ingredients contribute so much nutritional value with only a 2 percent contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the US is a testament to the commitment of the US dairy community to be part of the solution. And the US dairy community has committed to lowering US GHG emissions by an additional 25 percent by 2020.

Bringing this back to the concept of sustainable nutrition, one of the most important lessons is that all sources of nutrition will have some environmental cost. However, this will need to be put into context of the social and economic benefits of having a healthy society with the potential of reduced risk of non-communicable diseases. A sustainable food system has many moving parts, which need to work together in order to achieve progress in nourishing the US and the world, while also protecting the resources of the planet. Efforts to improve sustainable nutrition must be grounded in science, while considering the social and economic impacts as well as the environmental.

We also can’t forget that society is the most important moving part of the food system, and our collective actions will have the biggest impacts. While farmers and food companies are finding new ways to optimize their value chains every day, individuals can match their efforts. In my mind, food waste, which can be the fate of more than one-third of everything we produce in the United States, is the real “low hanging fruit” in sustainable nutrition. A family of four in the United States reducing its food waste by 25 percent would save enough to provide over 1,300 meals to the food insecure each year. Solving this would have a major impact on feeding the world.

On behalf of dairy, I look forward to working with all of you to continue to find solutions to keep progress moving to ensure a viable, nutritious food supply that is good for people and the planet.
 
1. Feeding America
2. UN World Food Programme