Chipotle Supports FDA Ban on Animal Antibiotics

Responding to last week’s attempt by the Food and Drug Administration to overturn the court-ordered ban on farm-animal antibiotics, restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has come out in support of the ban, which would prohibit the use of certain drugs in livestock feed. Speaking to Public Radio International, company spokesman Chris Arnold called antibiotics a flawed solution to a man-made problem—one rooted in issues of farm-animal welfare. “We’ve maintained that if you raise animals in ways that emphasize good animal husbandry and good care for the animals, the antibiotics just simply aren’t necessary,” he says. Recently, the FDA has come under fire for its lax regulation of farm-animal antibiotics, the extensive use of which has been shown to cause potentially harmful drug-resistant bacteria.