Go Antibiotics-Free, McDonalds

McDonald's Should Lead

If we want to save our antibiotics, we need to stop the overuse of antibiotics by all large industrial farms. So we’re focussed on getting the restaurant chain cited as the country’s biggest purchaser of beef and a major pork buyer, McDonald’s, to "Hold the Antibiotics." McDonald’s no longer serves chicken raised with medically important antibiotics in the U.S., and when they make a similar commitment to phase routine antibiotic use out of their pork and beef supply chains, it will signal a massive shift that could transform the way we raise meat in our country, and more importantly help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics, protecting public health, and saving lives.

McDonald’s has signaled that they want to move in this direction. The question is how fast, and how strong a commitment are they be willing to make? This could result in an industry-wide shift away from misusing our life-saving medicines to produce meat.

Several of the more than 30,000 photo petitions and signatures we collected calling on McDonald’s to eliminate medically important antibiotics from their chicken supply chains.

The surest way to get McDonald’s to take action is to demonstrate just how much support there is for change and how big an impact this could have on this growing public health threat.

We know that people and the medical community are behind us. In a poll released by U.S. PIRG and Consumer Reports, 93 percent of doctors polled said they were concerned about the practice of using antibiotics on healthy animals for growth promotion and disease prevention. And 300,000 people have added their names in support for our call to stop the overuse of antibiotics. To build on this momentum, we’ve created the Health Professional Action Network, a group of physicians and health experts who can present firsthand accounts of why McDonald’s and their shareholders need to take action to help stem antibiotic resistance.