The sign in the Pizza Nova window on the Danforth now advertises something its competitors don’t: pepperoni toppings from beef and pork “raised without antibiotics.”
Consumers have been demanding more antibiotic-free meat from food chains for years.
Now a new study reveals that raising cows without antibiotics may have another advantage: it could halve the climate-cooking emissions of their poop.
The University of Colorado study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London found that cows treated with the antibiotic tetracycline – commonly given to stimulate growth and treat disease – had manure that emitted twice the levels of methane, a greenhouse gas several times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The researchers found that antibiotics seem to encourage the growth of methane-producing bacteria in cows. They also found that the drugs messed with the microbes of beetles that feed on cow dung.
Up to 80 per cent of the world’s antibiotics are used in meat production. In response to rising global concerns about the rampant antibiotic use in animals and antibiotic-resistant bacteria appearing in humans, dozens of health, consumer and environmental groups south of the border sent a letter to all the major restaurant chains in the US last September urging them to commit to serving meat and poultry raised without the routine use of antibiotics.
Beef served up by A&W, Chipotle and Earls is already antibiotic free. Subway has promised to join the cause by 2025.
However, most fast food chains, including McDonald’s and Taco Bell, have only committed to phasing out antibiotic use in their chickens, which don’t generate methane the way cows and sheep do, though, methane gases are released in decomposing chicken manure.
You may want to ask McDonald’s, where’s the beef?
ecoholic@nowtoronto.com | @ecoholicnation
