Tell the FDA to stand up to Big Pharma and Big Meat and protect innocent animals by BANNING the controversial farm animal drug ractopamine! >>

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Dear Commissioner Makary,

Because I care about the well-being of animals, consumers, and the environment, I am writing to urge you to ban ractopamine in meat production. It is a non-therapeutic, growth-promoting drug used to boost farmed animal weight and corporate profits—at the expense of public health and animal wellbeing.

Ractopamine is banned or restricted in meat production in at least 160 countries, including China and all countries in the European Union. Nonetheless, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ractopamine for use in cows, pigs, and turkeys raised for meat in the U.S. and continues to allow ractopamine residue levels in meat that exceed those adopted by the United Nations’ food standards body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The FDA’s approval for ractopamine relied primarily on safety studies conducted by the drugmaker itself.

Animals given beta-agonists such as ractopamine face increased likelihood of experiencing painful injury, inhumane treatment, and extreme stress. Evidence, including that contained within the FDA’s own files, also links ractopamine to human heart and respiratory issues in meat consumers and farm workers, increased risk of pathogen contagion and intensified environmental pollution through seepage and runoff to ground and surface waters. Still, ractopamine usage has been estimated in 60–80 percent of all pigs raised for food in the U.S. By continuing to allow its use, the federal government is giving industrial meat producers an unfair advantage over small-scale, pasture-based, and organic farmers who choose safer, more humane practices.

I am calling on the FDA to ban the use of ractopamine in farmed animals.

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