I’m a rising senior at Mount Holyoke College, a neuroscience major and a public health intern with U.S PIRG this summer. I grew up on a farm in southern New Hampshire where good animal husbandry was our top priority. A big part of that meant only treating animals with antibiotics when it was absolutely necessary.
You can help keep these drugs effective by urging major meat buyers like fast food companies to only source meat raised without overusing antibiotics. An estimated 162,000 people die every year in the U.S from drug-resistant infections, and that death toll will rise without swift action to reduce antibiotic use.
When meat producers misuse antibiotics in their livestock, drug resistant bacteria can develop, spread off the farm, and infect people with potentially life-threatening illnesses.
McDonalds is the world’s largest beef buyer. If McDonalds started sourcing their beef from farms that don’t misuse antibiotics, the franchise could have an incredibly positive effect on this urgent public health issue. The company already stopped serving chicken raised with antibiotics considered important to human medicine, and it committed to reduce antibiotic use in its beef supply back in 2018, but it’s yet to follow through.
Urge McDonald’s and other major restaurants to stop sourcing beef from producers who misuse antibiotics. If we don’t act soon, the simplest infections could turn deadly.
Fionna Kennedy
Wilton, New Hampshire