Sign Our Petition: Ban Carbadox Now
Why This Matters
If you’ve visited the FACT website in the last few years or signed any of our actions, you have likely come across something on carbadox. Carbadox has been a focus of FACT’s work for years now, because of its dangers to consumers and the environment, as well as its role in propping up the unhealthy and unsustainable factory farming system.
Carbadox is an antibiotic feed additive commonly given to piglets in industrial farming environments where disease spreads easily and piglets are weaned before their digestive systems are developed enough for solid foods. It is a known carcinogen, and has been fed to pigs on factory farms for decades —but at a huge cost to people, animals, and the environment.
This dangerous feed additive:
Leaves cancer-causing residues in pork products.
Exposes farm workers to toxic dust when handling feed.
Pollutes waterways with carcinogenic byproducts.
The FDA has known carbadox is unsafe for more than twenty years. Yet delays and industry obstruction have kept it on the market, putting families, workers, and communities at risk while propping up factory farming systems that cut corners on animal welfare.
FDA Action Stalled
As stated above, public health experts throughout the world, and even in the U.S., the FDA has known about the dangers of carbadox for decades. However, while other countries over the years assessed these risks and banned carbadox from their pork supply (China, the EU, UK, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and others), the United States continued to stall and ignore the problem. Then, in 2016, the FDA finally proposed a ban on the drug. This victory was short-lived, and major pushback from the industry and drug company Phibro stalled efforts, and the proposal was ultimately abandoned. Years later, in November of 2023, the FDA, in an effort to move forward with the ban, withdrew the method used to detect carcinogenic residues in food and ensure consumer safety because it is not sensitive enough to find all of the residues present. In addition, the FDA also proposed a new ban on the drug.
This was great news! However, it is nearly two years later, and the drug is still being sold. Even though there is currently no method for ensuring consumer safety and the agency itself has stated time and again that it is unsafe.
Every day of delay means continued exposure to carcinogenic residues in pork and toxic contamination in our environment. This must end.
What Needs to Happen
We are calling on the FDA and the new administration to:
Finalize the withdrawal of carbadox.
Deny the drug sponsor’s request for a hearing.
Remove this carcinogenic drug from our food supply once and for all.
The science is clear. The risks are urgent. And safe, sustainable farmers prove every day that pigs can be raised humanely without dangerous shortcuts.
Take Action
Sign the petition today and urge the FDA to finish what it started. Together, we can protect consumers, food workers, animals, and the environment from this dangerous drug.
If you would like to learn more about carbadox, visit our bad drugs webpage for more details.