What if antibiotics stopped working?
We assume that if we get an infection, our doctor can give us antibiotics to get better. But what if the antibiotic didn’t kill the infection? The Centers for Disease Control warns that the widespread overuse of antibiotics on factory farms is putting our health at risk—already, at least 23,000 Americans die every year from antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
We took the issue, outlined the problem, solution and a strategy to win, and created a campaign that can help move us in the right direction right now to save antibiotics.
As a result, U.S. PIRG has been calling on big restaurant chains to get them to stop buying meat raised on antibiotics, which will force the factory farms to stop the overuse of antibiotics.
Since the campaign launch, U.S. PIRG has used our messaging and materials to help convince McDonald’s to stop selling chicken raised on our lifesaving medicines. And then Subway—the chain with the most restaurants in the country—to commit to serving meat raised without routine antibiotics.
Next up: KFC, and market wide change.