CDC: Growing Heat Surrounding Our Meats

ERIN KIM
Staff Writer

Ever since 2014, scientists have been voicing their concerns regarding the amounts of antibiotics found in the U.S. meat supply, according to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). For many years, meat producers have been feeding antibiotics to their animals in order to promote growth and profit. Moreover, the antibiotics given to animals are the same antibiotics that are used to treat human illnesses. According to microbiologist Dr. Glenn Morris on a PBS interview, feeding these antibiotics to animals may cause them to develop resistance to these drugs and as a result, the humans consuming these meats may not respond to antibiotic treatment.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization, the public health threat of antibiotic resistance is extremely high and imminent. As a result, researchers have made an A-F scoresheet grading U.S. fast food chains on their antibiotics use policies as well as transparency of their policies. Chipotle and Panera Bread were the only two restaurants that reported serving meat from animals raised without regular use of antibiotics. Fast food chains such as Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s have slowly begun to adopt policies banning routine antibiotic use by their meat suppliers.

“I believe it’s up to businesses to uphold a certain degree of social responsibility. I’m sure to be more careful of where and what I choose to eat. It’s pretty disappointing [that] such popular food places are not considering the effects of their ingredients more seriously,” junior Monica Phun said.