The issue of antibiotics in meat production has come to the fore again because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Activists are calling for the systemic use of antibiotics to be removed from the production chain for beef. They are particularly targeting McDonald’s, with a petition that is going viral and is pressuring the general shareholders’ meeting.
Superbugs versus Big Mac
The majority (nearly three quarters) of medical antibiotics don’t go to humans but cattle farms. Cattle, in particular, is still routinely given large amounts of antibiotics. Not only to prevent disease but also to promote growth and aid food digestion. In the light of the coronavirus pandemic, several campaign groups are now, once again, bringing the issue to the fore, as they believe there is a clear link and the next global health crisis already looming.
“Mention antibiotic resistance and few people would link what is increasingly being recognised as a growing global health crisis with a Big Mac,” writes the Financial Times. The business newspaper warns of the problem of antibiotic resistance: the overuse of antibiotics leads to resistant superbugs, which also affect humans. This not only increases the threat of the emergence of new diseases but also carries the risk that antibiotics will not be sufficiently effective in combating disease symptoms – for example, in people who develop pneumonia as a result of Covid-19.
Shareholders are getting involved
In recent months, shareholders and campaigners have, therefore, increased the pressure, particularly on American fast-food chain McDonald’s – one of the world’s largest buyers of beef. Billionaire investor group BMO Global Asset Management, together with other shareholders, demands more transparency regarding the use of antibiotics within the supply chain, and activists protested in front of restaurants in the US at the end of last year.
With success. McDonald’s admitted that, while the supply chain for chicken is more transparent and vertically integrated, this is not always the case for beef. The burger chain promises to start measuring the antibiotic use in its ten biggest beef sourcing markets and subsequently develop targets to reduce the use.
10 million deaths per year
However, there are no tangible targets yet, and this did not go unnoticed by the campaigners. At McDonald’s annual general meeting on May 20th, shareholder Amundi Asset Management, the largest asset management company in Europe, together with the University of Cambridge and supported by the NGO The Shareholder Commons, plans to submit a proposal. If approved, the proposal would require the fast-food chain to investigate the external environmental and public health costs of antibiotics and make the results public.
The NGO previously submitted a similar proposal to Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, forcing the holding company to voluntarily disclose the systemic costs of antibiotic use. “If current trends continue, humanity would experience a reversal of the public-health gains of the past century and the economic growth. According to studies by the World Bank and the UK government, antimicrobial resistance could cause up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050,” The Shareholder Commons reads, stressing the importance.
Meanwhile, an online petition is also going viral calling on McDonald’s – and other industry leaders – to “only purchase meat that has been produced in an antibiotic-free environment”, now that the chain is in the process of changing its antibiotic policy anyway. “Coronavirus could be just a taste of the terrifying threat we face from superbugs, and you have a crucial responsibility to protect society. We call on you to urgently pass new policies banning the routine use of all antibiotics in global beef supply chains,” reads the call, which at the time of writing is approaching 600,000 signatures.
What about Dettol?
Questions concerning antibiotic resistance arise not only within the meat industry: detergents aimed at bacteria and viruses, such as Dettol, have been used much more since the start of the pandemic, but they could also lead to antibiotic resistance. However, scientific studies show mixed results, so there is no decisive evidence.
Producers Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser have already responded to the Financial Times by saying that, thanks to their disinfectants, the need for antibiotic treatment is lower. Unilever nevertheless invests millions in natural cleaning products, such as the substance Lactam, produced with seaweed creating self-cleaning surfaces.
