Timeline of Farm Forward’s Antibiotics Testing & Coverage

• October 2, 2020 — Farm Forward publishes a blog, “Why We Resigned from the Board of the Nation’s Largest Animal Welfare Certification,” explaining our April 2020 departure from the board of Global Animal Partnership (GAP), the certification used by Whole Foods Market, after more than a decade of service. In it, we explain that, despite years of effort, the certification had become a marketing tool for factory farming corporations instead of meaningfully raising the bar for animal welfare.
  (Posted to timeline 8/25/22)
• December 30, 2020 — Farm Forward’s report, “ The Dirt on Humanewashing,” reveals how the certified “better” meat dominating grocery shelves, including Whole Foods’ Animal Welfare Certified™  meat, come from genetically modified animals who suffer in filthy, cruel conditions.
  (Posted to timeline 8/25/22)
• May, 2021 — Farm Forward receives a positive result from National Organic Program and Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified™ beef purchased from Whole Foods Market for monensin sodium, a growth-promoting antibiotic ionophore prohibited by both programs.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• September, 2021 — Farm Forward commissions a survey from YouGov of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers and their beliefs about meat labels. It finds that 25 percent incorrectly believe that “antibiotic-free” means animals are raised on pasture, and 32 percent incorrectly believe that “antibiotic-free” indicates high welfare. Additionally, nearly half of consumers expect GAP’s Animal Welfare Certified™ label to guarantee that animals are not given antibiotics.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• February, 2022 — Farm Forward receives eight additional positive results for antiparasitic drugs in cattle and turkey products sold at multiple Whole Foods stores and chicken products from Trader Joe’s. Four GAP-certified beef products purchased from Whole Foods tested positive for fenbendazole; one GAP-certified turkey product from Whole Foods tested positive for clopidol; and two “antibiotic-free” chicken products from Trader Joe’s tested positive for fenbendazole. These antiparasitic drugs are banned by the National Organic Program, but not by GAP. In our testing, these antiparasitic drugs did not appear in Certified Organic products.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• February, 2022 — Experts consulted to confirm the implications of each of the positive results for the claims made by the retailers and certifications implicated by the findings. Farm Forward shares its findings with a Washington Post reporter investigating antibiotic use in animal agriculture.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• March 30, 2022 — Farm Forward’s blog, “Whole Foods’ ‘Better’ Chicken Isn’t What You Think,” highlights how GAP’s new genetic welfare standards, framed as “reinvent[ing] the modern day broiler chicken,” still allow genetic modification for fast growth in ways that are known to produce leg deformities, muscle myopathies, and weakened immune systems.
  (Posted to timeline 8/25/22)
• April 5, 2022 — Farm Forward publishes the results of its drug testing program and launches a consumer petition targeting Whole Foods. Emails on behalf of petition signers are sent to Whole Foods on a rolling basis.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 5, 2022 — Farm Forward issues a press release about the results of its drug testing program.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 7, 2022 — Science publishes a peer-reviewed study co-authored by researchers at George Washington University’s Antibiotic Resistance Action Center (ARAC) and an antibiotics testing company, FoodID, revealing that residues of medically important antibiotics are pervasive in animals marketed as “antibiotic-free” and certified by GAP.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 7, 2022 — ARAC publishes a press release on Phys.org. Arizona radio station KJZZ is the first to cover the story.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 7, 2022 — The Washington Post posts an article about the article published in Science, affirming Farm Forward’s findings. Though Farm Forward was interviewed extensively for the story, a decision was made by the paper just before the article’s publication to omit any mention of Farm Forward, including Farm Forward’s test results and its former role on GAP’s Board of Directors. The article included an inaccurate assertion from a Whole Foods representative that Whole Foods had “no reason to believe that the cattle tested in this study ended up in products in [its] stores.” Whole Foods’ leadership was informed that Farm Forward had found antibiotic residue in meat sold on its shelves prior to the story’s release.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 7, 2022 — Farm Forward publishes a blog titled “More drugs found in ‘antibiotic-free’ meat certified by Global Animal Partnership,” discussing the Science study’s findings, which corroborate the results of Farm Forward’s own testing.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 7, 2022 — Farm Forward submits a letter to the editor to the Washington Post including some of the data that was omitted from the article. The LTE is not run.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 8, 2022 — Farm Action was joined by the American Grassfed Association in issuing a press release, calling on the USDA to investigate Whole Foods’ “antibiotic-free” claims in the wake of Farm Forward’s and the Science study’s findings.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 8, 2022 — Articles appear in The Hill, Consumer Reports, and WebMD, calling into question “antibiotic-free” claims based on the Science data but excluding Farm Forward’s findings.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 8, 2022 — Industry outlet AgWeb is the first to cover Farm Action’s request to the USDA along with Farm Forward’s data.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 12, 2022 — Forbes covers the Science study, highlighting that “more than a quarter of the cattle sampled from the Global Animal Partnership welfare certification program, used by Whole Foods and hundreds of other retailers and meat purchasers, had at least one positive test.”
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 12, 2022 — Food Safety News writes about the Science study and Farm Forward’s findings, reiterating Whole Foods’ claim that “no retailer is identified by the study,” despite Farm Forward’s results coming from meat purchased at Whole Foods.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 14, 2022 — Farm Forward’s petition reaches 1,000 signatures.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 14, 2022 — Farm Forward publishes a blog titled “The Drugs Farm Forward Found Hiding in Your Meat,” detailing the methodology and implications of its drug testing results.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 14, 2022 — Sentient Media publishes an article on Farm Forward’s data entitled “Antibiotic Residue Found in Antibiotic-Free Meat at Whole Foods.”
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 15, 2022 — Farm Forward’s Executive Director, Andrew deCoriolis, sends a letter to supporters and other stakeholders, including Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, about the drug testing results.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 16, 2022 — Farm Forward’s video about the antibiotics found in Whole Foods’ meat was played 50,000 times between Facebook and Twitter.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• April 20, 2022 — Farm Forward publishes a blog titled “How can “antibiotic-free” meat contain antibiotics? Simple: Nobody’s watching,” highlighting the absence of any testing to verify “antibiotic-free” claims, while companies charge premiums on factory farmed products with these labels.
  (Posted to timeline 4/20/22)
• May, 2022 — Farm Forward submits an ad calling Whole Foods’ “no antibiotics, ever” promise into question to Seattle and Austin airport and public transit agencies (hometowns of Whole Foods and its parent, Amazon, respectively) in advance of Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting. Officials (including Seattle’s Sound Transit, which maintains a financial relationship with Amazon) reject the advertisement because of its “controversial” nature.
  (Posted to timeline 7/5/22)
• May 24, 2022 — Farm Forward issues a formal appeal of the agencies’ decisions on First Amendment grounds, explaining that placing the PSA on publicly operated spaces like the Seattle and Austin airports and public transit would provide an important public service.
  (Posted to timeline 7/5/22)
• May 25, 2022 — Farm Forward runs its ad during Amazon’s shareholder meeting on cell phones in Austin and Seattle, as well as in the hometown cities of Amazon’s top 10 shareholders, reaching over 90,000 people, and publishes a blog entitled, “Censored: Ad Exposing Whole Foods’ Antibiotics Deception.”(Posted to timeline 7/5/22)
  
• March 30, 2023 — In collaboration with the Animal Welfare Institute, Farm Forward consults with Senator Blumenthal’s (D-CT) office to encourage them to take action with the USDA to protect consumers from humanewashing, leading to a letter being sent to the USDA by four senators asking to review the integrity of animal welfare claims like “humanely raised” and “sustainably raised” on meat products.
  (Posted to timeline 9/22/23)
• June 14, 2023 — The USDA announces changes to the guidelines meat companies must follow if they want to label their products as “humanely raised,” “free range,” or “raised without antibiotics.” Farm Forward praises this step in the right direction while acknowledging its limitations. (Posted to timeline 9/22/23)
  
• July 2, 2023 — Tyson Foods announces it will reintroduce certain antibiotics to its chicken supply chain and would drop the “no antibiotics ever” tagline from Tyson-branded chicken products. (Posted to timeline 3/21/24)
• July 25, 2023 — A federal judge in California rules that the consumer protection lawsuit alleging Whole Foods Market falsely advertised its beef as “no antibiotics, ever” can proceed. The judge also denied Whole Foods’ motion to stay discovery, which opens the door to Whole Foods turning over key information about their suppliers. (Posted to timeline 9/22/23)
• August 15, 2023 — Farm Forward sends a letter to the Deputy Undersecretary of Food Safety at the USDA, Sandra Eskin, recommending ways in which the USDA can further improve meat labeling and protect consumers from misleading claims and certifications. (Posted to timeline 9/22/23)
• August 25, 2023 — Farm Forward releases the results of a major new consumer survey conducted with Data for Progress. The survey underscores the reality that consumers have high expectations for animal welfare that meat companies and retailers are not yet meeting and that companies risk eroding the trust of their consumers if they continue to humanewash. The Data for Progress report is covered in Politico’s agricultural reporting. (Posted to timeline 9/22/23)
• September 7, 2023 — Agricultural research outlet Ambrook Research publishes a comprehensive article detailing the failures of antibiotic-free labeling. The piece quotes Farm Forward’s Executive Director, Andrew DeCoriolis, throughout. (Posted to timeline 9/22/23)
• Early 2024 — The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) completes its sampling program designed to assess antibiotic residues in cattle marked as “raised without antibiotics. The testing program was initiated after Farm Forward’s joint letter to the USDA was sent last year. (Posted to timeline 3/21/24)
• Late February 2024 —Panera Bread began removing in-store signs and artwork mentioning “No Antibiotics Ever,” among other animal welfare claims, as part of a policy shift ahead of its planned IPO. Loosening their animal welfare standards is estimated to save them $21 million. (Posted to timeline 3/21/24)
• March 25, 2024 — Chick-fil-A abandons its ‘no antibiotics ever’ chicken promise, and will shift to the ‘No Antibiotics Important To Human Medicine’ designation. (Posted to timeline 4/2/2024)
• August 29, 2024 – Farm Forward responds to a USDA testing program that found that at least 20 percent of tested cattle samples labeled “raised without antibiotics” or “no antibiotics ever” tested positive for antibiotics. USDA buries the findings and reports no punitive action. (Posted to timeline 9/10/2024)

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