Britain’s biggest asset manager is leading a shareholder revolt at McDonald’s over the fast food giant’s continued ‘overuse’ of antibiotics in mass meat production.
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) will take the burger chain to task at its annual meeting next week. It has tabled a motion on the topic and will be urging it to adopt World Health Organization rules on the use of the drugs across its supply chain.
LGIM, a top 20 shareholder in McDonald’s, fears excessive use of antibiotics in industrial farming is fuelling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the rise of drug-resistant superbugs among humans.
AMR is estimated to kill more than a million people each year and could cause £800 billion of economic damage by 2050.
‘Without coordinated action now, AMR could lead to the next global health crisis,’ said Maria Ortino, senior manager at LGIM.
Concern: LGIM fears excessive use of antibiotics in industrial farming is fuelling antimicrobial resistance and the rise of drug-resistant superbugs among humans
‘Failure to adequately respond to AMR could lead to far greater risks – for our clients, society and the global economy – than any individual company costs McDonald’s would incur by addressing this issue,’ she added.
McDonald’s is one of the biggest beef buyers in the world. In 2018 it pledged to reduce the amount of antibiotics in all beef sold in its 40,000 restaurants worldwide.
But campaigners say the company failed to announce details of the reduction targets by the end of 2020, as it had promised.
The LGIM resolution states: ‘McDonald’s has been weakening its antibiotics use commitments in its more recent statements, and recently dropped its commitment to reduction targets altogether.
‘As companies such as McDonald’s overuse antibiotics and exacerbate AMR, the efficacy of these life-saving drugs is compromised, putting the whole economy at risk,’ it adds.
The proposal is backed by Amundi, Europe’s largest pension fund, and Hesta, an Australian ‘superfund’, which together manage assets of more than £2.8 trillion.
It is the third year running that McDonald’s, which has about 1,270 restaurants in the UK, has faced shareholder wrath on the issue.
However, previous challenges from investors garnered only limited support.
Campaigners received a blow last week when influential proxy voting consultancy Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises investors on how to vote, recommended that they oppose the LGIM proposal.
McDonald’s also faces a separate resolution – led by a group of Benedictine nuns in Texas – to completely phase out the use of all antibiotics across its beef and pork supply chains.
McDonald’s says it accepts that AMR ‘is a critical global public health issue’ which, with its suppliers, it has ‘a responsibility to help address’. But it rejects both motions, arguing that it has ‘a strong track record of responsible antibiotic use’.
The firm says its policies ‘do not allow the routine use of medically important antibiotics for… growth promotion or the habitual use of antibiotics for disease prevention’.
