Restaurant Brands International: Request for Report on End Routine Use of Medically Important Antibiotics in Meat & Poultry
WHEREAS: The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that antibiotic resistance is a global public health crisis that threatens to overturn many of the medical advances made over the last century.
Antibiotic-resistant infections cause at least 2 million illnesses each year in the United States. Experts estimate these infections will kill 10 million people per year worldwide by 2050. (Review on Antimicrobial Resistance).
A major factor in the spread of antibiotic resistance is the overuse of these lifesaving drugs in meat and poultry production. 70% of medically important antibiotics in the U.S. are sold for livestock use (FDA, 2012). Antibiotics are often given to livestock to speed animal growth or to prevent illness caused by unhealthy, stressful conditions on farms, rather than to treat illness.
In April 2016, a group of investors holding over $1.4 trillion in assets called on Restaurant Brands International (RBI) to set timelines to prohibit the use of medically important antibiotics in its global meat and poultry supply chains.
Consumers are increasingly concerned about injudicious antibiotic use. Without meaningful action, RBI will lose market share to companies who have stronger policies in place. McDonald’s and Wendy’s have phased out use of medically important antibiotics in their entire U.S. chicken supply. Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill prohibit most antibiotic use in their livestock supply chains. Chick-fil-A will serve only chicken raised without antibiotics by 2019.
Pork producers in Denmark export over 30 million hogs per year at competitive prices, and have relied on improved husbandry and sanitation, reduced confinement, and other techniques to eliminate routine use of antibiotics for disease prevention and growth promotion.
A strong antibiotics policy will prepare RBI to comply more effectively with a shifting federal regulatory landscape. Meat producers will have to comply with new federal guidelines that effectively limit the use of medically important antibiotics for growth promotion by the end of 2016. The FDA is next expected to address preventive uses of antibiotics. (William Flynn, FDA, 6/22/2016, PACCARB Public Meeting)
BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that Restaurant Brands International adopt an enterprise-wide policy to phase out the use of medically important antibiotics for disease prevention in the company’s meat and poultry supply chain. Shareholders further request the company publish timetables and measures for implementing this policy.
Resolution Details
Company: Restaurant Brands International
Lead Filer:
As You Sow
Year: 2017
Filing Date:
January 2017
Initiative(s): Antibiotics and Factory Farms
Status: Withdrawn; Company will address