In a White House memorandum, President Barack Obama encouraged federal agencies to use meat and poultry raised with fewer antibiotics in their cafeterias.
According to the memorandum, "Antibiotic resistance…threatens to return us to a time when many people died from common infections, posing a serious threat to public health and the economy. Reducing antibiotic resistance will require stewardship practices in the use of antibiotics in medical and agricultural settings, including eliminating the practice of feeding medically important antibiotics to food-producing animals for growth promotion."
President Obama ordered the General Services Administration to encourage food service vendors in the cafeterias it runs to offer meat and poultry that complies with responsible antibiotic-use policies within 120 days.
The GSA should also label food appropriately so customers can tell which meats comply with antibiotics standards and track the customer demand, product supply, and market prices of meat and poultry produced according to responsible antibiotic-use policies. That information will be reported to the Director of Office of Management and Budget and the Task Force for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.
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More articles on antibiotic stewardship:
University of Minnesota receives $2M grant to study antibiotic resistance in poultry
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McDonald's to avoid using chickens treated with antibiotics