Does not matter: Ease up on alcohol, added sugars, dietary panel says — Food box suppliers tapped for 2 more months

Jun 18, 2020

With help from Helena Bottemiller Evich and Eric Wolff

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Quick Fix

— The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is recommending that the 2020 guidelines lower the limit of alcoholic drinks per day for men down to one — in what would be a significant departure from the government's long standing advice. Currently, federal nutrition advice is to limit two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.

— The Agriculture Department extended vendor contracts for its $3 billion food box program. Officials are aiming to plug gaps in the distribution network flagged by food banks and lawmakers, especially in rural areas.

— The Senate Agriculture Committee's coronavirus hiatus is coming to an end. The panel scheduled its first hearing since March to discuss a bipartisan bill on carbon farming, an increasingly popular idea for trying to curb climate change.

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Driving the Day

DGAC RECOMMENDS STRICTER ADVICE ON ALCOHOL, ADDED SUGARS: The influential Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is expected to urge officials at USDA and HHS to strengthen the federal government's advice to the public on alcohol and added sugars consumption.

Where things stand: The committee — which does not write the guidelines, but reviews the latest science and advises the government on what they should say — unveiled its conclusions during a more than 8-hour-long webinar on Wednesday. The panel's conclusions are still considered in draft form. The final advice to the agencies is expected to be publicly released in mid-July. Pros can find the full slide deck here.

Men should dial back the booze: "For those who drink alcohol, recommended limits for better health are up to 1 drink per day for both women and men," the panel concluded. Consuming the current limit of two drinks per day for men is associated with a "modest but meaningful increase" in all-cause mortality compared with just one drink per day, the committee found. The recommended advice would be unchanged for women.

Added sugars: The committee is also suggesting that Americans should consume even less added sugar than previously advised. The last iteration of the guidelines recommended that people not get more than 10 percent of their calories from added sugars. A dialed down limit of 6 percent is "more consistent with a dietary pattern that is nutritionally adequate while avoiding excess energy intake," the panel said.

Largely status quo: For all the criticism about the committee being too corporate-friendly or hamstrung by the Trump administration, the panel has put forward recommendations that look pretty similar to those during the Obama administration (save for no discussion of sustainability, which was never going to happen this round).

Low-carb fury: Critics of the guidelines and those advocating to include low-carbohydrate and high fat diets were not pleased with what they saw on Wednesday. The panel doubled down on the previous recommendations to limit saturated fat consumption, for one.

Nina Teicholz, executive director of the Nutrition Coalition, which believes the guidelines have long been flawed, tweeted on Wednesday: "Ironic that the findings against sat fats are being announced just as a new [Journal of the American College of Cardiology] article by prominent scientists finding caps on sat fats not warranted." That study can be found here.

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USDA TAPS FOOD BOX SUPPLIERS FOR 2 MORE MONTHS: The department is extending the contracts of certain companies participating in its $3 billion food box delivery program, launched last month to steer surplus meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables from farmers to food banks with unemployment and hunger on the rise.

The deets: USDA said it chose "select vendors" to deliver another $1.16 billion worth of food boxes through Aug. 30, based on their performance so far in supplying the first $2.2 billion through the end of June. The department is also considering contracts for several vendors whose initial applications were rejected because of technical errors.

Supplier struggles: USDA said it chose not to extend some contracts because of concerns raised during audits or difficulties delivering the food boxes. While the program is broadly popular, the launch was hampered by delays, logistical gaps and concerns about several of the contractors with little experience in food distribution or less capacity than needed to handle multimillion-dollar contracts.

Some states are also feeling left out of the program. Virginia Democrats led by House Ag member Abigail Spanberger sent a letter to USDA this week expressing "grave concerns" that Virginia food banks are having difficulty receiving aid, especially in rural areas.

Similarly, Wisconsin lawmakers have questioned why experienced milk processors and distributors based in the dairy state received less than 1 percent of the funding to source dairy products and fluid milk.

USDA on Wednesday said it's "continuously evaluating how to expand access to the program in areas that are underserved," and it's in the "final stages of determining cities and states … where additional food boxes are in demand."

SENATE AG BACK IN ACTION: The committee will meet next Wednesday to debate a bipartisan climate measure that would create a new USDA certification program for farmers, ranchers and foresters to participate in carbon credit markets. Notably, it's the panel's first meeting since the coronavirus took over the congressional agenda in early March and forced lawmakers to adapt to social distancing guidelines.

As for the substance: The climate legislation, introduced earlier this month, was fueled by growing interest across the ag industry and policymakers in using carbon sequestration to help curb global warming, while offering financial rewards to producers who practice climate-friendly farming.

The bipartisan effort is backed by key farm industry groups and environmental advocates, from the American Farm Bureau Federation to the Environmental Defense Fund. Officials from both groups will testify at the hearing, scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m.

EPA TO BOOST BIOFUEL MANDATE BY HALF-A-BILLION GALLONS: The agency will require oil refiners to blend another 500 million gallons of biofuels into the gasoline pool over the next two years, according to two biofuel industry members, Pro Energy's Eric Wolff reports.

The move is aimed at complying with a 2017 court ruling, which found that the EPA had improperly used waivers to lower the blending requirements from 2014 through 2016. The federal court directed the agency to require 500 million more gallons in future rules to compensate biofuel producers for the lost volume.

Mark your calendars: The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on Sept. 25 in another case that could determine whether the EPA has to curtail its program of exempting small refineries from their annual blending obligations.

Higher stakes? In a separate case, a federal court earlier this year ruled that the agency could only continue to exempt refiners that received waivers each year since the program started in 2013. But that ruling only applied to a handful of Western refineries, while the upcoming D.C. Circuit decision would have national implications.

Trade Corner

NO MEAT TRADE, NO DEAL: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers that the Trump administration won't agree to any trade deal with the U.K. unless it opens up the British market to more American meat products, Pro Trade's Doug Palmer reports.

At a House Ways and Means hearing, Lighthizer said the U.S. is "not going to compromise" on lowering the U.K.'s stringent barriers to meat imports, which stem from fear among British and European consumers about certain U.S. ag practices. "We either have fair access for agriculture or we won't have a deal," he said.

The dispute over beef, pork and poultry exports to Europe has long stymied progress on a separate trade deal with the EU. Lighthizer said the concerns about food safety and animal welfare are "thinly veiled protectionism" by Brussels and London.

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Row Crops

— President Donald Trump last year asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection in 2020 by ramping up China's agricultural imports to bolster Trump's support with U.S. farmers, according to John Bolton, the president's former national security advisor. POLITICO's Caitlin Oprysko has the story.

— There's no definitive link between grain-free pet food and the development of heart disease in dogs, according to new research published in the Journal of Animal Science. Growers of pulse crops like peas and lentils — often the main ingredients in grain-free pet foods — said the FDA's investigation into the issue last year crushed demand for their products.

— The Senate on Wednesday passed the most sweeping conservation package in decades on a 73-25 vote. The bill provides permanent appropriations for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and dedicates $9.5 billion to manage the backlog of maintenance needs at national parks and other public lands. Pro Energy's Anthony Adragna has the details.

— EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler appointed 33 members to the agency's advisory committee on ag and rural communities. The members, who serve for either two or three years, include farmers, academics, local officials and other experts. Here's the list.