UCSF Task Force Recommends Purchase of Meat and Poultry Raised Without Antibiotics

San Francisco, CA — There is strong consensus among independent experts that overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture poses a threat to human health by contributing to increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Acting on that concern, The University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) Academic Senate Coordinating Committee, the School of Pharmacy Faculty Council, and the School of Medicine Faculty Council unanimously approved a resolution in April to phase out the procurement of meat and poultry raised with non-therapeutic antibiotics at UCSF, urging all University of California campuses to do the same.

“There is overwhelming scientific consensus that overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a health hazard to people. It’s time for hospitals, universities, and other consumers to stop buying meat raised with non-therapeutic antibiotics,” said Dr. Thomas Newman, the Chair of the Academic Senate Sustainability Task Force at UCSF that originally spearheaded the resolution, and a member of the faculty at the School of Medicine at UCSF. Dr. Newman also sits on the Board of the San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility (SF PSR), which assisted in drafting the resolution. SF PSR coordinates Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care program in California.

Eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States are used in animal agriculture, primarily for non-therapeutic purposes of growth promotion and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions. Two-thirds of antibiotics used for livestock are directly relevant to human medicine, including penicillins, cephalosporins, sulfas, and tetracyclines. Experience in Europe demonstrates that this routine use of antibiotics in feed is unnecessary for the health of animals or for economically-viable meat production; the practice has been banned in the European Union since 2006.

In the United States, over 300 organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics have advocated ending the practice. The non-profit organization Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is leading efforts to leverage the purchasing power and expertise of the health care sector to address this important issue.

“We believe that healthcare is best positioned to lead our society away from its addiction to antibiotics in animal agriculture,” said Gary Cohen, President of Health Care Without Harm. “Hospitals have both the mission-critical rationale and the economic clout to transform the animal supply chain to become more environmentally sustainable and healthier for everyone.”

Health Care Without Harm currently works with over 93 hospitals across the country that are taking a "less meat, better meat" approach by reducing the amount of meat and poultry they serve in their facilities and/or procuring more sustainably-produced meat and poultry.

Serving over 650,000 meals per year to patients, staff and the community, UCSF Medical Center is poised to make a significant contribution in this arena. The hospital is taking a two-pronged approach.

"First, we have reduced the amount of red meat being served," states Jack Henderson, Associate Director of Nutrition and Food Services, "And secondly, we are pursuing a source of beef that is grass-fed, raised without non-therapeutic antibiotics, and still fits within our budget. Although it is a complex maneuver, we believe it is the right thing to do for our patients, our staff, and our visitors.”

Serious supply chain challenges must be addressed before UCSF can ensure that all of the meat and poultry it serves are raised without the use of non-therapeutic antibiotics. To date, the market for these products has been small in the United States, making them scarce and costly. Increased demand from large institutional purchasers like hospitals and schools will hopefully expand that market. UCSF’s Nutrition and Food Services, SF PSR, and HCWH are planning a Fall event bringing together meat producers, distributors, and hospitals to discuss these and related issues.

While institutional purchasing initiatives are important, smarter shopping alone cannot solve the antibiotic resistance crisis. Federal policy is needed to phase out the routine, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animals. SF PSR and HCWH work to bring the collective voice of health care to the halls of power - hundreds of hospitals, health professional associations, and other clinicians have contacted Congress to express support for legislation that allows the government to both gather adequate data on usage and to restrict use in order to protect antimicrobials for human health.

For more information about how health care facilities and professionals are addressing the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, please join us for two webinars on May 16 and 22, sponsored by Health Care Without Harm and the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming. The webinar on May 16 will feature a presentation by Dr. Thomas Newman and highlight how hundreds of clinicians across the country are pressuring the Food and Drug Administration for better oversight on antibiotics use. The webinar on May 22 will highlight what hospitals are already doing to procure more sustainable meat. Registration is available . online.

Heath Care without Harm, an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, is working to transform the health care sector, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. To learn more about HCWH's work, visit our website at www.noharm.org, our YouTube channel at HCwithoutharm, and our twitter feed at hcwithoutharm.