After pushing McDonald’s to phase antibiotics out of their meat supplies earlier this year, the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group and the Campus Action Team recently pressured Subway to join the ranks. The company announced it will be antibiotic free on Oct. 22.
The University of Oregon’s OSPIRG chapter, along with other PIRG organizations across the nation, have been pressuring Subway to stop purchasing meat from suppliers that use antibiotics since March. Now, Subway plans to make its chain completely antibiotic free by 2025.
“Today’s consumer is ever more mindful of what they are eating, and we’ve been making changes to address what they are looking for,” Dennis Clabby, executive vice president of Subway’s Independent Purchasing Cooperative, said in a statement.
According to Emma Brower, Vice Chair of OSPIRG, antibiotics are a major health threat to the general public. At locations where livestock are raised, animals are given feed laced with antibiotics at non-therapeutic levels which lead to the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that can endanger lives.
Brower says the meat itself is not dangerous, but the bacteria at the farms can potentially spread through waterways and infect people who do not come to contact with the meat.
According to the Food and Drug Administration study in 2014, approximately 70 percent of antibiotics are used on livestock, and approximately two million people became ill with an antibiotic-resistant infection.
“There is a huge problem where antibiotics are being abused and special interests are trying to push more product [to the farms],” Brower said.
Since the campaign to push Subway to phase out antibiotics started in March, OSPIRG was able to initially generate 100 photo petitions in four hours. PIRG collected over 100,000 signatures for its petition and constantly pressured the food chain on social media to change its practices.
Subway’s decision to phase out antibiotics from its meat supply is a major victory for public health and can be a model for other chains as well, PIRG Campus Organizer Jacob Wyant said.
Subway is the largest fast-food chain in the United States, larger than both McDonald’s and Starbucks. Wyant says that Subway’s decision can influence the way other companies purchase their products because it can lead to the creation of an industry standard of being antibiotic-free.
“It’s not about antibiotics in the meat itself. It’s about the antibiotic’s resistant bacteria getting out into the world. Even if you don’t eat at McDonald’s or Subway, it still affects you,” Wyant said.
Steven Jackson, a Subway manager on Pearl Street, says that there are several customers that applaud the company’s decision and that there has been nothing but a welcoming attitude for its decision.
“It’s encouraging that Subway is keeping up with its “Eat Fresh” slogan,” Jackson said. “It’s a good thing, in the long run, to get extraneous things out of our food. It can only be positive.”
Subway plans to completely phase out antibiotics in its chickens by 2016, turkeys within 2-3 years afterward, and pork and beef completed by 2025.
Brower said she was surprised that Subway decided to phase out antibiotics from its entire meat supply and says that the recent victory with Subway demonstrates just how much power students actually have.
“It’s a great victory. It shows that grassroots organizing works,” Brower said.