Victory: Subway Commits to Help Save Antibiotics

Today, Subway announced a plan to phase out antibiotics from it's entire meat supply in response to mounting consumer demand for stronger action by the chain to help save antibiotics from overuse.

Today, Subway announced its plan to phase out antibiotics use from its entire meat supply. Their commitment begins with chicken in 2016, expands to turkey in 2017, and promises to fully eliminate antibiotic use from all meat — including their pork and beef production — by 2025. This is a major victory for public health.

Overusing antibiotics on livestock and poultry contributes to a major public health problem: antibiotic-resistant infections. Thanks in part to our efforts to educate and mobilize the public on this issue, people have become increasingly aware of this problem and hungry for meat raised without antibiotics. Today, Subway showed that it has heard its customers calls for action, and rose to the occasion.

Our organizers were set to deliver nearly 300,000 petition signatures to Subway headquarters on Thursday, many of which were collected by PIRG activists who had blanketed neighborhoods around the country since early this summer; it now looks like we’ll deliver a giant “thank you” card instead.

We’re ecstatic that Subway will be living up to the healthy image they’ve created. They have more restaurants in the U.S. than any other chain, and their announcement will put major market pressure on the meat producers to stop overusing antibiotics.

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Steve Blackledge

Senior Director, Conservation America Campaign, Environment America

Steve directs Environment America’s efforts to protect our public lands and waters and the species that depend on them. He led our successful campaign to win full and permanent funding for our nation’s best conservation and recreation program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund. He previously oversaw U.S. PIRG’s public health campaigns. Steve lives in Sacramento, California, with his family, where he enjoys biking and exploring Northern California.