McDonald’s Under Pressure From Investors To Reduce Antibiotics Use

Two of Europe’s largest asset managers, Legal & General Investment Management and Amundi, will try to increase the pressure on McDonald’s to reduce the use of antibiotics in its food supply chain.

Legal & General Investment Management and Amundi are among the institutions backing a resolution, calling on McDonald’s to “institute a policy to comply with World Health Organization guidelines on the use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals.

The resolution has been tabled by Shareholder Commons, a non-profit advocacy organization.

There is e growing concern among investors about the systemic impact and broader economic threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

AMR has long been seen as a threat to global health and development, believed to contribute to millions of deaths worldwide each year. The inappropriate use, and overuse, of antimicrobial medicines can blunt the effectiveness of drugs critical to controlling an array of diseases that were often fatal in the pre-antibiotic era.

The WHO guidelines recommended “an overall reduction of the use of all classes of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals”.

McDonald’s has urged shareholders to reject the latest resolution, saying it has a “strong record of responsible antibiotic use” across its supply chain.

Campaigners are continuing to press their case, however. Caroline Le Meaux, head of ESG research, engagement, and voting policy at Amundi, said that antimicrobial resistance was a “material consideration” for both food companies and wider society.

She said: “Antimicrobial resistance is going to create a major cost to society and it will drive a lot of deaths going forward.”