Animal Agriculture and the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis: How Corporate Deception and Regulatory Failure Undermine Public Health

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), antibiotic resistance is “one of the greatest global public health challenges of our time.”1 Globally, the number of deaths associated with antibiotic resistance is 4.95 million annually, with 1.27 million deaths directly attributed to resistant bacterial infections.2 By 2050, more than 10 million people could die worldwide each year from resistant infections.3

That the industrial animal sector is a primary cause of antibiotic resistance in both animals and humans is well-established.4 The industrial animal sector administers antibiotics not only to treat acute diseases, but also in low doses as prophylactics, which enable animals to survive unsanitary, high-density farming practices that breed disease.

This is not only a story of industry deception, false labeling, and USDA failures to substantiate labeling claims. It is also a story about the existential threat of antibiotic resistance driven by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture and government-wide failure to respond to this issue.

Consumer demand for meat raised without antibiotics has steadily increased for decades and is projected to continue this rapid growth. In 2023, the global RWA meat market was valued at $18.75 billion; it is expected to grow into a $35.6 billion industry by 2032, with North America projected to continue holding the largest market share.5

Consumer surveys show that concern about antibiotic resistance and the unhealthy conditions under which animals are raised drives increasing demand for antibiotic-free meat,6 and consumers are willing to pay more for products that carry this label.7 Meat companies and grocery retailers profit from this demand. On average, RWA meat costs at least 20 percent more than conventional meat.8 The profits from charging a premium for RWA meat incentivize use of the RWA label regardless of whether meat is actually antibiotic-free.

So it should be no surprise that meat sold with RWA labels is not always antibiotic-free. Testing of RWA beef samples revealed that major beef companies and retail grocers are deceiving consumers by selling products under RWA labels that do, in fact, contain antibiotics.

Testing of RWA beef by Farm Forward, a research team from George Washington University, and eventually the USDA, found antibiotic residues in RWA beef. In 2020, Farm Forward commissioned testing of RWA beef sold at Whole Foods under their No Antibiotics Ever promise and found an antibiotic as well as other pharmaceutical drugs.9 In 2023, USDA conducted its own exploratory testing and detected antibiotics in 1 out of 5 samples tested (20 percent). The USDA testing revealed that the beef from Tyson, Cargill, and JBS, as well as more than a dozen beef companies supplying retailers like Whole Foods, contained antibiotics while consumers paid a premium for these products.

This testing revealed negligence not only by industry but by the government agencies responsible for truthful labeling and antibiotic oversight. The USDA—the agency tasked with verifying that food labels are truthful and accurate—has failed in its mandate to protect consumers, allowing beef producers to sell meat with antibiotics under RWA labels. More broadly, there is a government-wide failure to regulate antibiotics use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies, which choose not to track and report on antibiotics use, or to institute enforceable guidelines for responsible antibiotics stewardship.

The good news is that the science is well-established and non-controversial, so the regulations that could dramatically reduce animal agriculture’s contributions to the antibiotic resistance crisis are clear. The question is whether the public will exert enough pressure to force corporations and government to adopt practices less perilous to human health.