The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has written to several international public health agencies to raise concerns about data published on red meat consumption.
It follows the publication of a letter from six leading scientists in The Lancet last Friday (February 25).
The group, including Prof. Alice Stanton and Prof. Patrick Wall from Ireland, questioned the reliability of data used in the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2019 report, which was published by the same medical journal.
That report linked a high red meat diet to 896,000 deaths and 23.9 million disability adjusted life-years.
The scientists have called on the collaborators of the GBD 2019 report, which has been widely cited across the globe, to make the evidence they used for the findings available for a comprehensive independent peer review.
IFA letter
In the wake of the letter being published, the IFA president Tim Cullinan has now written to the editor of The Lancet, the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations and the European Commission.
In the correspondence, also sent to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, the IFA president calls for the questions raised by the scientists to be urgently addressed.
“These key policy-making agencies, which are responsible for public health guidelines, must address the scientific questions raised about a study which attempted to demonise red meat,” Cullinan stated.
“The data in question, from ‘Global Burden of Disease’ of 2019, has since been cited in 635 documents, 351 scientific papers and nine policy documents.
“The scientists have been fighting a long battle to have their concerns published by The Lancet. There must now be a response from the Global Burden of Disease to address the problem.
“If this is not forthcoming, then policy-making agencies must disregard the study and revisit any policies which were influenced by it,” the IFA president concluded.