Above Photo: From ConsumersInternational.org.
This year’s World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) campaign message calling on KFC, McDonald’s and Subway to make global, time bound commitments to stop sourcing meat from animals routinely given antibiotics has been delivered to over 2 million people.
Using the campaigning tool Thunderclap in English and Spanish, our message “McDonald’s, KFC & Subway: Help tackle #antibioticresistance health crisis – get #AntibioticsOffTheMenu” has been posted and shared on Facebook and Twitter by hundreds of people.
Over 75 CI Members in 60 countries are carrying out their own national campaign activities to mark the day across the world, which you can view on the WCRD 2016 map.
Supporters of our #AntibioticsOffTheMenu call have also been posing for photos with our campaign logo outside their local fast food restaurants. View them here.
Our report ‘Antibiotics Off the Menu’ published on 25th February 2016 found that McDonald’s have made a commitment to stop sourcing chicken routinely given antibiotics in the USA and Canada. Subway has committed to stop serving meat from any animal given antibiotics in the USA. KFC have made no meaningful commitments anywhere.
Amanda Long, CI Director General said:
“This World Consumer Rights day is about calling for major global brands to act responsibly.
Antibiotic resistance is spreading in every region of the world. Left unchecked, antimicrobial resistance will kill 10 million a year by 2050.
Given the scale of the global public health crisis the world is facing due to antibiotic resistance, making partial commitments is inadequate. KFC’s efforts have been token and McDonald’s and Subway must go much further.
As global brands these fast food chains are in a strong position to set the standard for their industry globally and drive a decrease in agricultural use of antibiotics, faster then legislative change along.”
Consumer organisations in all regions are petitioning companies, holding public events and running targeted social media campaigns. Here are just a few:
The Swedish Consumers’ Association and the Hong Kong Consumer Council plan to publish the results of investigations into the policies of fast food chains, meat producers and retailers.
The National Consumer Association of St Lucia is organising a march, a public road show and radio and television debates on the issue.
The Consumers Association of Mali and Consumers Lebanon are planning radio programmes.
The Consumers Association of Bangladesh is holding a seminar with the Minister of Commerce and appearing on televised talk shows.
Antibiotic resistance constitutes a global health crisis to which the overuse of antibiotics in farming in a major contributing factor. If urgent action is not taken to tackle antibiotic resistance we could face a future where common infections and minor injuries can kill again.