Statement on Subway Eliminating Antibiotics in Meat

Media Contacts
Evan Preston

ConnPIRG Education Fund

Statement of ConnPIRG State Director Evan Preston on Subway’s announcement today that it will phase out using antibiotics in its meat:

“Overusing antibiotics on livestock and poultry contributes to a major public health problem, antibiotic-resistant infections. People are increasingly aware of this, and customers have been hungry for meat raised without antibiotics.

We’re ecstatic that Subway will be living up to the healthy image they’ve created. They have more restaurants in the U.S. than any other chain, and their announcement will put major market pressure on the meat producers to stop overusing antibiotics.

We were set to deliver over 300,000 petitions to Subway headquarters in Milford, CT on Thursday, much of it from staff and volunteers who had blanketed neighborhoods around the state and with our partners from around the country since early this summer, but it now looks like we’ll deliver a giant “thank you” card instead.”