This story in the Washington Post about how McDonald's is asking the meat industry to cut its use of antibiotics in their massive meat and poultry factory farms is another example of how responsible corporations can change broader industry policies. I was a producer on a Frontline doc called "Modern Meat" (see left) and this is one of the issues we took a long look at. The meat industry, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, swore up and down that the widespread use of antibiotics in raising cattle and chickens posed no threat of raising immunity in humans and that cutting back on the use of antibiotics was unnecessary and would raise costs too much. Now that the largest beef buyer in the United States (and one of the largest in the world) has raised concerns about the issue, the meat industry is more than willing to go along. A similar thing happened a few years ago, when McDonald's said it wanted its beef providers to implement "humane slaughter" practices and the major beef companies quickly complied. Prior to McDonald's interest in the subject, the meat industry said it was unnecessary and too expensive to implement such policies.