Dr Kate Sievert - Meat And Sustainable Food Systems

Dr Kate Sievert is a Research Fellow at GLOBE at Deakin University with a special interest in power and politics with regard to food systems and their relationship with population and planetary health. Kate is also a co-founder of Healthy Food Systems Australia, an advocacy group dedicated to bettering food systems for all Australians and the land.

Dr Sievert was responsible for leading The World Health Organisation’s recent Information Brief titled Red and Processed Meat in the Context of Health and the Environment: Many Shades of Red and Green, which synthesized the current evidence on the role of red and processed meat production and consumption in health and environmental outcomes, and in different social and political contexts.

In this episode, we discuss this recent publication in addition to some of Kate’s other fascinating work regarding transparency within the food industry, corporate power, and political influence. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, so you may want to listen through it twice. However, one thing that Kate makes clear is that in transitioning to a sustainable food system we need to think more deeply than economics and consider concepts that are best for humans, animals, and the planet.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Kate’s background and the path that led to her current research
• Kate’s work at the Global Centre for Preventative Health (GLOBE)
• Red and processed meat production and consumption trends
• Shifting meat consumption patterns – influences on consumer behaviour
• Meat consumption and nutritional adequacy versus potential health risks
• Zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance risks
• Food safety risks and food-borne diseases associated with animal-sourced foods
• Key environmental concerns associated with red and processed meats
• Practicalities of feeding the world with regenerative farming methods
• Potential alternatives to red and processed meats in the diet
• The consideration of sustainability in food-based dietary guidelines
• The power of the food industry, links to government, and consequent impact on policymaking
• Media framing and meat consumption – who has a beef with reducing red and processed meat consumption
• Changes needed to achieve sustainable food systems

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