For the last 25 years, the Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s health and nutrition portfolio has been underpinned by a strong scientific evidence base which continues to evolve through the release of a new report, titled The Role of Red Meat in Healthy and Sustainable New Zealand Diets.
The report pulls together the breadth of information of a complex topic, which we hope will help inform the many discussions around feeding a growing population well. The report includes the human evolution of eating meat, red meat’s nutritional contribution to the diet of New Zealanders, it’s role in health and disease and where New Zealand beef and lamb production, and consumption fits within our food system and ecosystem. The farming practices of our beef and sheep sector is profiled capturing all facets that reflects our pasture-raised systems here in New Zealand.
Compiling the report required a range of expertise from across New Zealand, which has cumulated in a piece of work that navigates through the scientific evidence of the ever-evolving areas of nutrition and environmental sustainability, and the interfaces which brings them together – sustainable nutrition and food systems.
READ THE REPORT
THE ROLE OF RED MEAT IN HEALTHY
AND SUSTAINABLE NEW ZEALAND DIETS
FULL REPORT
WHERE DOES RED MEAT FIT IN TODAY’S HEALTHY
AND SUSTAINABLE DIETS?
SUMMARY
explore the report further
what is a healthy and sustainable diet?
is eating beef and lamb good for us?
how is our meat produced?
how sustainable is beef and sheep farming?
what about iron?
how much red meat are kiwis eating?
how much red meat can we eat?
read the report
launch event
To celebrate the launch of the report we hosted a discussion panel with recognised nutrition, agricultural and food system experts who talked about the place of New Zealand beef and lamb in a healthy and sustainable Kiwi diet. You can view the full discussion below along with bios on each of the speakers. The discussion was moderated by Daniel Eb.
about our PANELLISTS
Professor Warren McNabb
Professor Warren McNabb is Deputy Director of the Riddet Institute, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE), hosted by Massey University. His research interests include nutrition for health, sustainable nutrition, human-microbiome interactions, physiology and metabolism.
Warren leads several programmes including the MBIE-funded, New Zealand Milks Mean More and the Sustainable Nutrition Initiative. Warren is also an Associate Investigator in the High-Value Nutrition National Science Challenge, Healthy Digestion and Infant Health. His focus is on food structures-nutrient digestion interactions, clinical investigations of nutrition, microbe-human interactions, and gastrointestinal function. Warren has had a long career in food science and has published >140 scientific papers with >6400 citations. Warren is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, a member of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology, a member of the American Society of Nutrition and the Canadian Nutrition Society, and has served on national and international research advisory and funding panels.
Emily King
Emily King (MSc /LLB) is a thought leader in food systems and sustainability. Emily practiced as an environmental lawyer before focusing on ways to improve environmental and social impacts of food. For over a decade, she has studied and worked on food systems, a journey that's taken her around the world: investigating seed practices in Cuba, running a climate change adaptation forum focusing on resilient urban food in Germany, on trains across Canada and a bike tour of the US. In Aotearoa, she founded Spira in 2017, was named one of Food Tank’s top 20 global food leaders under 40 for her work restoring New Zealand’s food system, and has worked across the country to help cities, businesses, and communities improve their food systems.
This year Emily hosted the Aotearoa Food Systems Dialogues, as part of the Global Food Systems Dialogues held in response to Covid-19. She judges the sustainability category in the Outstanding Food Producer awards, started The Kitchen Project, and is currently working on food resilience in her own community on Waiheke.
Dr. Andrea Braakhuis
Dr. Braakhuis is a Registered Dietitian with a research interest in the clinical and health application of plant and animal-based bioactives. Andrea has over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is an Associate Editor for the Nutrition & Dietetics journal and is on the review committee for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Nutritional Genomics area and collaborates with AgResearch, Massey University, Auckland Cancer Society, University of Auckland Science and commercial partners. Andrea founded the Dietitians New Zealand Research Special Interest group and is currently employed by The University of Auckland with the Nutrition and Dietetics programme as the Academic Director.
Professor Derrick Moot
Professor Moot completed post-doctoral research in the UK on climate change in the 1990s before returning to a lecturing position at Lincoln University. He has spent the last 20 years as head of the Dryland Pastures Research team that has transformed sheep and beef systems in east coast regions of New Zealand from Central Otago to Gisborne. His research creates on-farm resilience to climate change with an emphasis on legumes to sustain animal production and promote efficient use of resources.
