SuperChefs Against Superbugs, an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, is a movement of chefs who want to stop the overuse of antibiotics in food animal production.
Driven by the increasing awareness of antibiotic resistance and its link to food animal production, celebrity chefs and restaurateurs Suzanne Goin and Mary Sue Milliken, who serve only meat raised without antibiotics in their establishments, came to Washington, D.C., in May 2012, as part of the Supermoms Against Superbugs advocacy day, to urge the Administration and Congress to rein in the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in industrial farming. Watch a short video of these chefs highlighting how producing and serving responsibly raised livestock benefits both business owners and their customers.
Goin, Milliken, and the Chefs Collaborative engaged chefs from around the country on this important public health issue. In July 2012, more than 300 chefs signed a letter urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to strengthen its antibiotic policies. And thus began the SuperChefs Against Superbugs.
Chefs Boot Camp for Policy & Change
More than a dozen chefs from across the country gathered at the James Beard Award-nominated Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, in July 2012 for the James Beard Foundation's first Chefs Boot Camp for Policy & Change. The pilot program, made possible with financial and programming support from the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, was designed to provide chefs with tools to advocate for food-system change.
During the first session, chefs learned how antibiotics are overused in meat and poultry production, a practice that is breeding drug-resistant superbugs and making life-threatening infections harder to cure.
Participants:
Hugh Acheson | Michael Anthony | Jeremy Barlow |
Jeremy Bearman | Sean Brock | Josh Feathers and Joseph Lenn |
Colby Garrelts | Rock Harper | Maria Hines |
Mike Isabella | Ed Kenney | Andrea Reusing |
Sam Talbot | Cathy Whims | Alex Young |
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, a bipartisan bill that would eliminate certain antibiotic-related practices that contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and endanger human health. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jack Reed (D-RI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
More infoThis bibliography lists the latest published scientific and economic literature concerning the contribution of routine antibiotic use in food animals to the growing public health crisis of human antibiotic resistance. Research on how antibiotic use in food animal production contributes to the growing health crisis of antibiotic resistance dates back more than 30 years.
More infoPew Charitable Trusts today applauded Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Susan Collins (R-ME), for introducing the Antimicrobial Data Collection Act, which would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, to report more information on the annual sales of antibiotics used among industrial farm animals. The bipartisan bill would also give the agency a deadline to finalize policies proposed last year to eliminate the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in meat production.
More info"As a nation, we need to exercise greater care with our use of antibiotics, in both humans and animals, so that these medications remain effective in treating serious bacterial infections."
More infoSuperChefs Against Superbugs, an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, is a movement of chefs nationwide who have expressed their support of ending the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. As a result, the SuperChefs are urging the Food and Drug Administration to strengthen its antibiotic policies.
More infoSuperChefs Against Superbugs, an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, is a movement of chefs who want to stop the overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. On April 23, the following seven chefs visited Capitol Hill to explain why they serve meat and poultry raised without antibiotics.
More infoIt used to be easy to treat healthy children with common bacterial infections; a regimen of antibiotic pills could usually wipe out the disease. Today, patients might need to go home on intravenous antibiotics because oral therapies will no longer work. Antibiotic resistance is to blame.
More infoA past bout of salmonella led Maine resident Danielle Wadsworth to travel to Washington, D.C. this week to argue for stronger regulations to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock farming. She took part Wednesday in "Supermoms Against Superbugs," an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.
More infoDr. Cecilia Di Pentima is in Washington, D.C., for “Supermoms against Superbugs” to push for laws to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock farming — one of many fronts in the battle to preserve the effectiveness of the medicines. Family physicians in the South, including Tennessee, have also been identified as inadvertent purveyors of drug-resistant bacteria by prescribing too many antibiotics.
More infoEach year, tens of thousands of Americans die and hundreds of thousands are hospitalized because of bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotic overuse on industrial farms is a big part of the problem. The largest U.S. meat and poultry producers feed antibiotics to healthy animals over much of their lives to make them grow faster and to compensate for the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in which they are bred and slaughtered.
More infoOn behalf of the undersigned organizations representing medical, public health, scientific, agricultural, environmental, animal protection, and other organizations, we urge you to include H.R. 820, the Delivering Antimicrobial Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act, as part of the final Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA). This legislation provides a reasonable, common-sense approach to better understanding antibiotic use in agriculture.
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