The poultry industry has seen a shift to cage-free and raised without antibiotics. But one major poultry processor is standing its ground on antibiotic use and making sure their consumers know about it in their latest campaign.
Sanderson Farms, the country’s third largest poultry producer, is standing its ground on the issue and clearing up confusion for its consumers, according to The New York Times.
The ads feature two blue-collar men talking about labels on chicken. The characters suggest labels that say “raised without antibiotics” is just a “marketing gimmick” aimed at charging higher prices.
While concern has been rising among public health experts, consumers and shareholders about the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Sanderson Farms denies the claim.
“There is not any credible science that leads us to believe we’re causing antibiotic resistance in humans,” Lampkin Butts, the president and chief operating officer of Sanderson, told The New York Times.
Fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A have said they will only buy chicken raised without antibiotics used to treat humans. Late last week, Wendy’s also joined the crowd and announced they will stop using chickens raised with antibiotics important to human health by 2017, according to Reuters.
As a result, many corporate buyers have convinced four of the five large American poultry producers to reduce their reliance on antibiotics. Perdue has already eliminated antibiotic use from half its flocks. Tyson, the largest chicken producer, has pledged to eliminate the antibiotics used to treat humans from its chicken operations by September 2017. Pilgrim’s Pride and Foster Farms are also taking steps to reduce antibiotic use in their operations.
Butts says reducing antibiotics would lead to higher mortality rates and would increase production costs.
“We looked at it, and we would need more corn, more water, more soybean meal, more housing, more electricity,” he said. “But sustainability calls for using less of everything.”
Perdue says there has been no increase in production costs or the mortality rates of its chickens since its move to reduce the antibiotic use in its flocks.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) insists there are valid reasons for their concerns and for public health.
“The concern we have is the bacteria on the meat and poultry that are resistant to antibiotics and can cause disease,” Dr. Robert Tauxe, CDC director of the division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases told The New York Times.
Butts said their new ads are targeting the “movable middle” consumers that will “listen to facts” and “listen to reason.”