NRDC Activist,

Last week, I spoke at The Wendy's Company's annual shareholder meeting in Ohio.

I was a little nervous, and a lot excited — I addressed Wendy's CEO Todd Penegor, their corporate board, and company shareholders about the urgent need to end the routine use of medically important antibiotics in the company's beef supply to protect human health.

Last year, we saw important progress in our push to protect antibiotics when McDonald's — the country's most iconic fast-food chain — committed to ending routine antibiotic use in its beef. This is a critical step in slowing down the development of drug-resistant "superbugs" that cause infections that are now killing an estimated 162,000 Americans each year.

Now, we're counting on you to help us turn up the heat on Wendy's — the third largest burger chain in the country: Tell Wendy's to stop serving beef produced with antibiotics.

A recent report concluded that by 2050, drug-resistant bacteria could kill 10 million people worldwide every year.

So it's no surprise that the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider antibiotic resistance to be one of our planet's biggest health threats.

Today, nearly two-thirds of the drugs that are important to human medicine get sold not to treat people — but for animals like cows and pigs in factory farms. These precious medicines are often given to animals that aren't even sick — they're receiving drugs on a routine basis to ward off problems created by stressful, crowded conditions in which they're raised.

This overuse leads to the creation of "superbugs," which can make people sick from infections that are harder or sometimes impossible to treat.

Over 90% of U.S. chicken is raised without antibiotics considered medically important by the U.S. FDA. But there is almost no progress with beef. That's why we need your help today.

Help jump-start a new era in the restaurant industry — urge Wendy's to protect life-saving medicine by getting its beef off drugs.

Yes, eating less meat is the best way to protect our planet and our health. But we can also demand that meat be produced with more sustainable practices. Less meat, better meat, healthier future.

Thank you for taking this quick action! With a president who's made clear that protecting our health isn't high on his agenda, it's more important than ever for huge beef buyers like Wendy's to take the lead in this fight to save lives.

Sincerely,

Lena Brook
Director of Food Campaigns, NRDC