In 2019, meat—of all types—seemed to dominate much of the news coverage on food and health. Controversial guidelines around red and processed meats made headlines, while countless publications examined the new wave of plant-based meat alternatives being marketed as a way to accelerate the shift from industrial animal agriculture. Designed to closely recreate the taste and experience of eating meat, products from brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat drew interest from a broader consumer base than earlier alternatives targeted at a vegan or vegetarian demographic.
But can these innovations engineered from plants really be part of a healthy and sustainable diet? And what about the developing area of lab-cultured meats seeking to grow familiar products from cells, rather than produce them from the animal itself?
These were just some of the overarching questions informing the Department of Nutrition’s January 2020 symposium, which explored both red meat and meat alternatives in context of broader challenges for conducting, implementing, and communicating public health research, policy, and guidelines.
Recordings of the symposium’s presentations and panel discussion questions are embedded below.
Presentations
Red Meat, novel meat alternatives, and public health guidance
Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology; Chair, Dept. of Nutrition, Harvard Chan School
Writing about nutrition research: the responsibility of authors, editors, and journalists
James Hamblin, MD, MPH Staff writer, The Atlantic; Lecturer, Yale School of Public Health
Issues with Annals of Internal Medicine red meat systematic reviews and guidelines Walter Willett, MD, DrPH Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard Chan School
Environmental impacts of meat production and meat alternatives Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, MS, PhD Assistant Professor in the Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University
Red and processed meats and cancer risk
Marjorie McCullough, ScD, RD
Senior Scientific Director, Epidemiology Research, American Cancer Society
The role of observational evidence in developing public health policies and guidelines Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, MPH Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and Division Chief, Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine; Deputy Director, Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis
Environmental science and public health under siege Francesca Dominici, PhD Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science, Harvard Chan School
Regulatory, policy, and food system applications of red meat and meat alternatives Nicole Negowetti, JD Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor, Harvard Animal Law and Policy Clinic, Harvard Law School
Linking knowledge with action: practical guidance for scientists who want their research to have (appropriate) influence William Clark, PhD Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development, Harvard Kennedy School
Panel Discussion
Discussion and Q&A with speakers, moderated by:
Eric Rimm, ScD Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard Chan School
Discussion: Regenerative agriculture
Discussion: Grass-fed beef vs. industrially-produced beef
Discussion: Red meat and dietary guidelines
Discussion: Red meat and school lunch guidelines
Discussion: Can the term “dietary guidelines” be protected?
Discussion: Science, political influence, and conflicts of interest
About the Speakers & Panelists
Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, MS, PhD
Nicole Tichenor Blackstone is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Dr. Blackstone’s research focuses on developing and evaluating strategies to improve food system sustainability. Her work fuses industrial ecology, nutrition, and social science methods. To date, her research has explored the environmental and social implications of livestock agriculture, human diets, food waste management, and regional food systems. She teaches graduate courses on U.S. agriculture, environmental life cycle assessment, and corporate social responsibility in the food industry. Dr. Blackstone holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Nutrition from Tufts University and a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Kansas.
William Clark, PhD
William Clark is the Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University’sJohn F. Kennedy School of Government. Trained as an ecologist, his research focuses on sustainability science: understanding the interactions of human and environmental systems with a view toward advancing the goals of sustainable development. He is particularly interested in how institutional arrangements affect the linkage between knowledge and action in the sustainability arena.
Graham A. Colditz, MD, became interested in the potential of disease prevention during his medical training, which he completed in at the University of Queensland in Australia. Now, 40 years later, he is an internationally recognized epidemiologist and public health expert on the causes and prevention of chronic disease, particularly among women and adolescents.
After 23 years at Harvard University, Dr. Colditz joined the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine in 2006 to serve as the Niess-Gain Professor of Surgery and associate director of prevention and control at the Siteman Cancer Center. In 2010, he was named chief of the division of public health sciences in the department of surgery. Dr. Colditz leads research studies in a variety of areas, including benign breast disease; adolescent diet, activity, and growth in relation to risk of benign lesions as well as invasive breast cancer; and implementing guidelines for prevention and care in routine medical care settings.
Dr. Colditz is a member of the National Academy of Medicine/Institute of Medicine, is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he serves on the board of scientific advisors of the National Cancer Institute and the NIH Council of Councils among other professional affiliations.
Francesca Dominici is the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Co-Director Harvard Data Science Initiative. Her pioneering scientific contributions have advanced public health research around the globe. Her life’s work has focused on developing and advancing statistical methods for the analysis of large, heterogeneous data sets to identify and understand the health impacts of environmental threats and inform policy. She is an expert in data science, Bayesian methods and causal inference. Dr. Dominici’s team has provided the scientific community and policy makers with robust evidence on the adverse health effects of air pollution, noise pollution, and climate change. Her studies have directly and routinely impacted air quality policy, leading to more stringent ambient air quality standards in the US. Dr. Dominici has recently been recognized in Thomson Reuter’s 2019 list of the most highly cited researchers, ranking in the top 1% of cited scientists in her field and she is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NPR, and CNN among many others.
James Hamblin, MD, MPH
James Hamblin is a preventive medicine physician, staff writer at The Atlantic, and lecturer at Yale School of Public Health. He is the author of If Our Bodies Could Talk (Doubleday, 2016) and the forthcoming Clean (Riverhead, 2020). He hosted the video series If Our Bodies Could Talk, for which he was a finalist in the Webby awards for Best Web Personality. He is a past Yale University Poynter Fellow in journalism, and he has lectured at Harvard Medical School, Wharton Business School, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and SXSW, among others.
His writing and videos have been featured in The New York Times, Politico, NPR, The Guardian, Elle, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The Awl, The Los Angeles Times, and Marketplace,among others. Time named him among the 140 people to follow on Twitter, Greatistnamed him among the most influential people in health media, and BuzzFeedcalled him “the most delightful MD ever,” though he is not as delightful as William Carlos Williams. After medical school at Indiana University, he did three years of residency before joining The Atlantic to develop a health section and write. He later completed a residency in general preventive medicine and public health.
Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD
Dr. Frank Hu is Chair of Department of Nutrition, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He serves as Co-director of the Program in Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention at Harvard and Director of Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (BNORC) Epidemiology and Genetics Core. Dr. Hu is the recipient of the Kelly West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology by the American Diabetes Association in 2010 and the American Heart Association’s Ancel Keys Memorial Lecturer in 2018. He has served on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, the AHA/ACC Obesity Guideline Expert Panel, and the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS. He has served on the editorial boards of Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Hu is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Marjorie McCullough, ScD, RD
Dr. McCullough is a Sr. Scientific Director of Epidemiology Research in the intramural Behavioral and Epidemiology Research Group at the American Cancer Society, where she oversees the diet and nutrition research initiatives, including development and validation of dietary assessment methods, in the ACS’s large, nationwide prospective cohorts, the Cancer Prevention Studies. Her research focuses on dietary factors, dietary patterns, and adherence to dietary and lifestyle guidelines in relation to cancer incidence and mortality. Dr. McCullough serves on the ACS Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for cancer prevention and survival committees. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Nutrition Health Science and Epidemiology Departments at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics from Michigan State University, a Master of Science in Clinical Dietetics at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions and her Doctorate in Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Nicole Negowetti, JD
Nicole Negowetti is a Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Law School Animal Law and Policy Clinic (ALPC) and Visiting Instructor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Prior to joining the ALPC, Nicole was a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic. She was previously the Policy Director of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports plant-based and cell-based food technology companies. Nicole also served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Valparaiso University School of Law from 2011- 2016. Nicole’s teaching and research focuses on the health, environmental, and economic consequences of policies shaping the U.S. food system. Nicole serves on the Food & Drug Law Journal Editorial Advisory Board and is a founding member of the Academy of Food Law & Policy.
Eric Rimm, ScD
Eric Rimm, ScD, is Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He is internationally recognized for his extensive work in the study of diet and chronic disease. He also studies local and national nutrition policy as it impacts the diets of individuals on federal nutrition assistance programs. He serves on the National Academy of Sciences advisory committee for the USDA’s Economic Research Service and previously served on the scientific advisory committee for the 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. He has published 750+ peer-reviewed publications while on the faculty at Harvard. Dr. Rimm has received several awards for his work including the American Society for Nutrition Innovation Award.
Walter Willett, MD, DrPH
Dr. Walter Willett is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as Chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for 25 years.
Dr. Willett was born in Hart, Michigan and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, studied food science at Michigan State University, and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School before obtaining a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Willett has focused much of his work over the last 35 years on the development of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses’ Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices.
Dr. Willett has published over 1,900 articles, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease and cancer, and has written the textbook, Nutritional Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press. He also has four books for the general public, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, just recently revised and released, Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less, co-authored with Mollie Katzen, The Fertility Diet, co-authored with Jorge Chavarro and Pat Skerrett and Thinfluence, co-authored with Malissa Wood and Dan Childs. Dr. Willett is the most cited person in all areas of science and most cited nutrition scientist. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.
Dean Michelle A. Williams, SM, ScD
Michelle A. Williams, SM ’88, ScD ’91, is Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development, a joint faculty appointment at the Harvard Chan School and Harvard Kennedy School. She is an internationally renowned epidemiologist and public health scientist, an award-winning educator, and a widely recognized academic leader. Prior to becoming Dean, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School and Program Leader of the Population Health and Health Disparities Research Programs at Harvard’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Center. Dean Williams previously had a distinguished career at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Her scientific work places special emphasis in the areas of reproductive, perinatal, pediatric, and molecular epidemiology. Dean Williams has published over 450 scientific articles. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016. The Dean has a master’s in civil engineering from Tufts University and master’s and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the Harvard Chan School.