Chicken, fries... and hold the antibiotics
A coalition of organisations in the US is using the formidable buying power of America's fast food industry to leverage reductions in antibiotic use along meat supply chains.
The dangers posed by excessive use of antibiotics in farm animals are now well known. Once-treatable diseases can now be fatal, and in the US alone at least 23,000 people die annually from antibiotic-resistant infections. The future for treating basic infections looks grim, according to top health scientists.
Campaigners are now looking to pressure US fast food chains to source meat from suppliers that use antibiotics responsibly. The chains are huge buyers of meat -- a quarter of all chicken produced in the US is sold through fast food restaurants.
The new report, Chain Reaction, ranks the 25 largest fast food and 'fast casual' restaurant chains on their antibiotics policies. The good news is that 14 have taken some steps to encourage their suppliers to reduce antibiotic use. The bad news (apart from the fact that 13 haven't done anything) is that almost all of the action concerns chicken, ignoring other meat supply chains.
Read the report here.
Sustain is a founder member of the UK Alliance to save our Antibiotics. Find out more and support us here.
Published Friday 29 September 2017
Save Our Antibiotics: The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is a coalition of health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups campaigning to stop the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming.
