Earth Watch: Big Food Companies Weaken Antibiotic Standards as Antimicrobial Resistance Remains a Looming Crisis

Author: Charity Isely

Earth Watch: Big Food Companies Weaken Antibiotic Standards as Antimicrobial Resistance Remains a Looming Crisis

Is maintaining the status quo of "cheap food" the entry fee to the next pandemic? Panera Bread will save itself a reported $21 million a year by relaxing its food quality standards, including its "No Antibiotics Ever" policy; Chick-fil-A is also revising its five-year-old antibiotics ban to preserve, in part, the future availability of "high-quality chicken" in its supply chain.^{2 3} And Tyson Foods, the meat processor responsible for around one-fifth of the U.S. chicken supply, recently modified its 2017 no-antibiotics in chicken pledge.^{4 5} "Companies … aren't getting a return on their investment if they can't sell it for the extra money it costs to produce antibiotic-free chicken," a University of Tennessee poultry specialist told The Wall Street Journal in 2023.⁶

Image of a person with syringe and antibiotic bottle and a pig

Yet, these food industry giants are relaxing their stance on antibiotics at a time when public health experts consider antibiotic resistance an "urgent global public health threat."^{7 8 9} In 2019, it contributed to almost five million deaths worldwide, directly causing more than one million of them, and the “potential overuse” of antibiotics in meat production is considered a key driver of antibiotic resistance.^{10 11 12 13 14}

Chick-fil-A and Tyson changed their standards from “No Antibiotics Ever” to "No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine."^{15 16} But is that good enough? Any long-term use of antibiotics is an opportunity for the evolution of drug-resistant pathogens, with the potential to transfer from animals to humans.¹⁷ Yet, perhaps the most concerning element is that this weakening of standards signals a reversal of progress. Currently, in the U.S., the beef and pork sectors are the highest antibiotic users, while, thanks to consumer demand, chicken is now estimated to be 50-60 percent antibiotic-free.^{18 19 20 21 22} So what future impact will big food companies' relaxation of antibiotic standards have on chicken, or the progress sorely needed in the beef and pork industries? While that remains to be seen, consumers must understand why the routine use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is both reckless and unnecessary.^{23 24}

Antibiotics aren’t used primarily to treat sick animals^{25 26}

In the U.S., sales of medically important antibiotics to livestock producers are almost double the sales of the same drugs for human use, and globally, we rank second only to China for the quantity of antibiotics used in animal food production.^{27 28 29} An estimated 90+% of these precious medicines are sold as feed and water additives designed for routine administration to large groups of animals for disease prevention, whether they are ill or not. ^30 31 32 Additionally, no use duration limits are set for roughly 30 percent of these drugs.³³ The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working to set new limits, but the agency says this won’t be complete until 2027, at the earliest.^{34 35} In the meantime, we face a dangerous equation in which high numbers of animals being fed antibiotics for an extended time create optimal environments for exposed bacteria to develop and spread resistance.³⁶ And it's this practice experts find most concerning.³⁷

We need a revamp of our food production systems

Achieving real progress in this sector requires altering production systems.³⁸ A primary use of antibiotics at cattle feedlots, for example, is to prevent liver abscesses triggered by grain-fed diets, which aren't naturally suited to ruminant digestive systems.³⁹ Meanwhile, in pork operations, overcrowding and poor waste management compel routine use of antibiotics to prevent infections that the living conditions make much more probable.⁴⁰ Certified Humane and Certified Organic standards ban antibiotics in production, so farmers rely on management systems that accommodate natural behaviors, provide adequate space, outdoor access, and optimal diets for each species, among other practices, all of which ensure animals stay healthy.^{41 42}

The responsibility for antibiotic stewardship is not only on policymakers, farmers, and food sellers. We, as consumers, have a great deal of influence, and the externalized cost of "cheap meat" is a price tag we will all pay in time. At the end of the day, how we spend our food dollars speaks most loudly to the titans of food.

References

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