The growth and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a global health crisis, threatening to create a future in which common infections could once again become life-threatening on a large scale. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consider antibiotic-resistant bacteria among the top threats to global public health, and the CDC estimates that each year, at least 23,000 Americans die from resistant infections.[1]
The overuse of antibiotics in livestock production significantly contributes to the spread of antibiotic resistance.[2] The more antibiotics are used, the more bacteria become immune to them. More than 70 percent of the medically-important antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to food animals.[3],[4] Many meat producers routinely give the drugs to animals that are not sick either to promote faster growth or to prevent disease caused by factory farm production practices.[5] Despite the threat posed to public health, the U.S. lacks effective laws and policies to prevent the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.
Fast food restaurants, as some of America’s largest meat buyers, can play an instrumental role in pushing meat producers to use antibiotics responsibly. In fact, previous editions of Chain Reaction have documented how the nation’s top restaurant chains have stepped up their commitments to source chicken from producers that raise animals without the routine use of antibiotics.[6] These corporate actions have helped move the chicken industry toward more responsible antibiotic use practices.
Consumers continue to want restaurants to serve meat raised without the routine use of antibiotics. For instance, in a nationally representative 2018 survey of 1,014 adults conducted by Consumer Reports, 59 percent of those polled indicated that they’d be more likely to eat at a restaurant that served meat raised without antibiotics — and more than half agreed that restaurants should stop serving meat and poultry raised with antibiotics.[7]
Although there is some progress in the chicken industry in response to such consumer demand, many fast food restaurants have failed to make meaningful commitments to address antibiotic overuse in their beef supply chains. This is concerning because in 2016, the beef sector accounted for 43 percent of the medically-important antibiotics sold to the meat industry — more than any other meat category.[8] By contrast, six percent of medically-important antibiotics sales went to the chicken industry.