The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is suing HHS and the USDA, alleging the agencies violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by scrapping science-based recommendations from the government’s official nutrition advisory panel in favor of an undisclosed group with deep ties to the meat and dairy industries.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 19, centers on the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released Jan. 7 under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the USDA as part of the Make America Healthy Again initiative. The guidelines emphasize protein, fats and meat, marking a shift from the prior decade’s dietary advice.
According to PCRM, the federally chartered Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — a panel of scientists that operates through public, transparent meetings — issued a report in December 2024 recommending more plant-based meals and plant proteins. PCRM alleges the agencies instead relied on an undisclosed panel that produced its own report in three months, which was not released until the day the final guidelines were published. Eight of that panel’s nine members had financial ties to the beef, dairy, egg, pork or low-carb diet industries, according to the complaint.
“The government allowed the meat and dairy industries to ghostwrite the Dietary Guidelines,” said Neal Barnard, MD, PCRM’s president.
PCRM is asking the court to order HHS and the USDA to withdraw the guidelines and bar their use in federal nutrition programs, school meal standards and other policy decisions until new recommendations are developed through a process that complies with federal transparency law.
The suit follows a petition PCRM filed with the agencies earlier this year seeking the same outcome.
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