Corporate food retailers, meat supply chains and the responsibilities of tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

该项目对解决抗菌素耐药性(AMR)的议程做出了开创性的贡献，将范围研究和重大网络活动集中在一个迄今在学术和政策辩论中缺失的环节--企业食品零售商的关键作用。该项目的目的是解决零售商在其鸡肉和猪肉供应链背景下应对AMR挑战的责任，并调查这一不断演变的角色以及未来在英国和全球范围内可能如何塑造这种角色。在数十年涉及抗生素使用的动物集约化养殖的背景下，越来越明显的是，虽然抗菌剂是维持农场健康和福利的必要工具，但关键问题是它们在动物身上的不适当和不成比例的使用，从而减少了人类的可获得性。食品行业普遍担心，这会导致沙门氏菌、弯曲杆菌和大肠杆菌等某些细菌的抗药性不断增强，给该行业带来压力，要求其制定和实施更负责任的使用标准。作为应对AMR的一部分，超市连锁店是一组关键的参与者，处于战略地位，以应对减少食品供应链中抗生素使用和提高消费者意识的全球挑战。该项目将解决零售商在通过其海外和全国门店网络以及通过流经全球南方和北方空间的供应链来应对AMR挑战方面的作用。具体地说，该项目通过在英国提出研究和传播活动的范围来解决这一角色，在英国，政策领导力得到承认，企业零售实力也得到了良好的确立。推动该项目政策参与的动力将是英国政府食品标准局(FSA)作为项目合作伙伴的支持，促进项目前范围研讨会和研究结束后的传播研讨会。这反映了项目目标与食品安全管理局新出现的优先事项之间的密切联系。项目的目标是：(I)绘制目前涉及企业食品零售商通过其鸡肉和猪肉供应链面临的AMR挑战的地图并建立模型；(Ii)评估英国目前和不断演变的企业零售战略和标准，以减少鸡肉和猪肉供应链中抗生素的使用；(Iii)考虑消费者参与在提高负责任地在农业中使用抗生素的标准方面的作用；以及(Iv)促进企业食品零售商与英国更广泛的机构政策和科学网络之间加强对话，以制定未来应对AMR的策略。这些目标将通过为期18个月的四个项目阶段进行，涉及定量和定性方法，包括：利用贸易数据绘制英国企业食品零售商在其供应链中面临的AMR问题的地图和建模；采访英国零售商的食品技术专家和食品标准政策制定者；以及对英国肉类生产商的样本进行访谈。项目网站、利益相关者报告和在伦敦举行的项目结束研讨会将补充学术出版物，以便向非学术受益者传达范围研究的结果，并形成关于企业食品零售商在应对AMR方面的角色和责任的不断演变的战略。

This project makes a path-breaking contribution to the agenda for tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by focusing scoping research and significant networking events on a link that has so far been missing from academic and policy debate - the pivotal role of corporate food retailers. The aim of the project is to address the responsibility of retailers in tackling the AMR challenge in the context of their chicken and pork supply chains, and to investigate this evolving role and how it might be shaped in the future, in the UK and at a global scale. Against a backdrop of decades of intensive farming of animals involving the use of antibiotics, it is becoming clearer that while antimicrobials are a necessary tool to maintain health and welfare on the farm, the key issue is their inappropriate and disproportionate use in animals thereby reducing availability for humans. There is food industry-wide concern that this is leading to growing resistance amongst certain bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and E-coli, placing pressure on the sector to develop and implement standards for more responsible use.Supermarket chains are a key set of actors strategically positioned to address the global challenge of reducing antibiotic use in food supply chains and raising consumer awareness as part of tackling AMR. The project will address the role of retailers in navigating the AMR challenge through their overseas as well as their national store networks, and through supply chains that flow through spaces of the global South as well as the North. Specifically, the project addresses this role by proposing scoping research and dissemination events in the UK, where policy leadership is acknowledged and where corporate retail power is well-established. Driving the momentum of the project's policy engagement will be the support of the UK government's Food Standards Agency (FSA) as a Project Partner facilitating both a pre-project scoping workshop and a dissemination workshop at the end of the research. This reflects close alignment between the project's objectives and the emerging priorities of the FSA.The objectives of the project are: (i) to map and model the current AMR challenge involving corporate food retailers through their chicken and pork supply chains; (ii) to evaluate current and evolving corporate retail strategies and standards in the UK for reducing antibiotic use in chicken and pork supply chains; (iii) to consider the role of consumer engagement in raising standards for responsible use of antibiotics in farming; and (iv) to facilitate increased dialogue between corporate food retailers and wider institutional policy and scientific networks in the UK, in order to shape future strategy for tackling AMR. These objectives will be met through four project phases conducted over eighteen months and involving both quantitative and qualitative methods that include: the mapping and modelling with trade data of the AMR problem facing UK corporate food retailers in their supply chains; interviews with retailers' food technologists and food standards policy-makers in the UK; and interviews with a sample of UK meat producers.A project website, a stakeholder report and an end-of-project workshop in London will complement academic publications, in order to communicate the findings of the scoping research to non-academic beneficiaries and to shape evolving strategy regarding corporate food retailers' roles and responsibilities in tackling AMR.