McDonald’s shareholders push to go completely antibiotic-free

McDonald’s shareholders are asking the company to expand its policy on the use of antibiotics to all meat served at its fast-food restaurants.

On Thursday, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) filed a formal resolution asking the McDonald’s board of directors to update the 2015 McDonald’s Global Vision for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Food Animals and prohibit the use of antibiotics in chicken, beef and pork for purposes other than treating an illness or controlling the outbreak of disease.

{mosads}“McDonald’s recently updated its policy to procure only chickens raised without antibiotics used to treat humans, which we roundly applauded as an important step forward in sustainable meat production and an acknowledgement that it understands the damage overexposure to antibiotics has on public health,” Susan Mika of the Congregation of Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas, an ICCR member, said in a statement.

“But, we question why this important commitment isn’t also being applied to the beef and pork it sources, as hamburgers are a mainstay of McDonald’s business.”

While ICCR is hopeful McDonald’s will respond positively to the request, it said its members are prepared to raise the issue with all shareholders at McDonald’s annual general meeting in May.

The resolution comes two days after a coalition of environmental and consumer groups led by Friends of the Earth released a report that found only five of the nation’s top 25 restaurant had adopted publicly available policies that meaningfully limit routine antibiotics use.