MADELEINE KLEVEN, SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Antibiotic resistant superbugs threaten to dismantle our entire medical system and kill as many as 10 million people per year by 2050. A key driver of antibiotic resistance is the overuse of antibiotics in food-animal production, especially the overuse of antibiotics that are important to human medicine. In the United States, approximately two thirds of the medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to meat production. In cattle, the bulk of these are given in feed not to treat illness but to prevent problems caused by unhealthy feedlot diets and by the stress of shipping baby calves across the country to unhealthy crowded feedlots. This is unacceptable and needs to change. Food animals should be raised under healthy conditions so that farms and feedlots do not routinely use these lifesaving drugs. That is where McDonald’s and other food companies come in.

As the single largest beef purchaser in the United States, McDonald’s has a huge influence over the beef production sector. In 2018, McDonald’s publicly committed to set antibiotic reduction targets across 85% of its global beef supply chain by the end of 2020. This commitment was a step in the right direction and represented an important opportunity for the beef sector to stop overusing antibiotics and start raising cattle in healthier ways. However, it is nearly 2022 and McDonald’s still has not set the reduction targets. This is outrageous and shows that McDonald’s is willing to break promises not only to consumers but also to the American public. Keep Antibiotics Working and its allies are not letting this failure go unnoticed. When a company as influential as McDonald’s makes a commitment, we expect them to follow through. Especially when they can leverage their buying power to drive industry wide progress.

Antibiotic resistance threatens the health of people and animals globally. It’s time for McDonald’s to take this threat seriously and meet its commitment to end the routine use of antibiotics on the farms supplying its meat.

Please join us in calling on McDonald’s to move forward with their commitment and end the overuse of antibiotics by their beef suppliers. Please add your signature to this petition urging McDonald’s to follow through on their commitment.

Be sure to check out the letter signed by Food Animal Concerns Trust and 56 other ally organizations calling on McDonald’s to follow through.