MCLA Activist Group Thanks Subway for Shifting to Antibiotic-Free Meat
 Christian Kennedy, left, John Kelly, Michael Basmajian and Mitchell Chapman of MassPIRG's local chapter thank Subway for eliminating antibiotic-fed poultry. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — They may have looked like protesters, but the group standing in front of Subway on Thursday were really delivering a big thank-you.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts students had hosted one of 50 campaigns across the nation to thank Subway restaurants for switching to non-antibiotic produced poultry.
"We are educating [Subway] customers about this historic move that won't let farms use antibiotics on livestock and other farm animals," said Michael Basmajian, Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group campus organizer.
So students of MCLA's MassPIRG constructed a 10-foot "sub" out of cardboard and craft paper as a thank you to Subway for initiating the change.
The group had planned to protest the fast-food franchise's use of meat from animals fed with antibiotics, a standard practice U.S. agriculture. The U.S. Centers For Disease Control says the use of antibiotics is the "single most important factor leading to antibiotic resistance around the world."
U.S. PIRG and other partners in the protesting the use of antibiotics in the nation's food stream had gathered nearly 300,000 signatures on a petition to be delivered to Subway.
On Tuesday, the fast-good giant announced its intention to remove poultry products with antibiotics from its menu and, in the future, all meats. Although the full switch will not be completed in all meat for at least six years, Subway has set a timeline of production stages that indicates chicken that is served will be completely antibiotic free by March 2016.
Subway has some 44,280 restaurants in 110 countries and territories.
"In the beginning Subway tweeted out that they were making changes but they did not commit with a timeline, detailed plan, or formal commitment; now they have all of that," Basmajian said.
Instead of getting signatures to protest, the local PIRG group gathered more than 200 signatures on the 10-foot "sub" and also gained 150 photo petitions toward the movement, according to campaign organizer Mitchell Chapman.
"This campaign helped us with building a connection with other groups on campus which was very successful," he said.
The sub was displayed in front of Subway on West Main Street along with a collage of other MCLA students who took individual pictures to convey the same message. The photos included students, faculty and staff holding cardboard subs that declared "#SubsNotDrugs."
Basmajian said Massachusetts alone gained more than 6,500 signatures to thank Subway and more than 700 photo petitions toward the movement. MassPIRG urged individuals to tweet #GoodJobSubway.
"We are targeting a social media form of action to thank Subway for this change but there are multiple other ways schools are participating," he said.
Other reasons MassPIRG organized the campaign were to influence other fast-food chains and supermarkets to make the same change and create a hopeful long-term change in regulations put forth by the government, according to Basmajian.
"If more chain restaurants follow Subway then it will be more likely to get the government to sponsor it as well," he said.
Volunteer Christian Kennedy agreed: "Yeah, I think it will make other food companies do the same switch especially when they see Subway do it because they are the largest food chain restaurant."
He added it could also draw more awareness and even a competitive stance because customers will be aware that Subway made the change and competitors will need to do the same to please those customers.
"It's pretty awesome to know the actions we take can make for physical and tangible results towards positive change," Kennedy said.
Tags: fast-food, intern, masspirg, MCLA, protests,
