Subway has 27,000 restaurants in the U.S. and wants them to
be meeting the new standard by early next year.
The pork industry says this is foolish because it means
farmers won’t be able to use antibiotics to treat sick pigs.
“Subway is not saying ‘no’ just to those antibiotics used in
human medicine. Subway isn’t saying ‘use antibiotics only when animals are
sick.’ Subway is saying no antibiotics ever – even when animal health and
safety could be at risk,” says the pork-industry ad.
“We think that such a policy could compromise the safety of
our food system.
“Sick animals in the food system are not a good idea.
“Healthy animals help farmers produce safe food,” the ad
says.
“How will a hog farmer react to a fast-moving disease
outbreak that could have been prevented with medicine administered in time? The
potential for thousands of animals to unnecessarily die or suffer is a real
possibility. These are the consequences that farmers will have to face.”
The ad was signed “America’s Pig Farmers” and directs
readers to www.porkcares.org, a website of the We
Care initiative, which was launched in 2008 as a joint effort of the National
Pork Board, the National Pork Producers Council and state organizations
representing farmers.
The National Pork Producers has a checkoff fund to spend on research and communications. The Canadian pork-producer industry is seeking federal government approval to set up a similar mandatory checkoff agency.
Subway’s move is a departure from recent announcements of
other major retail and foodservice companies, which supported Guidance 209 and
213 and Veterinarian Feed Directive (VFD) compliance and what is seen as the
responsible use of antimicrobials.
"That’s immoral and inhumane, and farmers aren’t willing to do that. Enough is enough,” the ad says.
