Get the antibiotics off the farm
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The Obama administration announced Monday that it would seek to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans.
via Administration Seeks to Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock – NYTimes.com.
And none too soon, in my book. Antibiotic resistance has long been blamed on physicians’ overprescribing habits, which I’ll admit is a part of the problem. What people fail to realize, however, is that the vast majority, some estimate around 70%, of antibiotic use in the U.S. is by the livestock industry. And that use is not only to treat sick animals, it’s also to promote weight gain, boost output, and prevent infections in all livestock. I’m going to resist the urge to lapse into a discussion of feedlot conditions, which given my location and my upbringing I have some first-hand experience with, but suffice it to say that I’m pretty sure there are other ways of preventing livestock illness other than prophylactic antibiotic use.
Proponents of this practice make the argument that we lack proof that widespread use of antibiotics in livestock contributes to antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. That’s just nonsense. Bacteria will infect whatever they can, wherever they can, and while there certainly are organisms that can infect one species but not another, there are many, many others that are perfectly happy to infect animals and people alike. Think bubonic plague. Think brucellosis. To defend breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria in livestock because we lack proof that it will infect humans is akin to defending the development of nuclear weapons in Iran because we lack proof they’re going to bomb us. Some things are just bad ideas no matter where they occur.
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Agree 100% with you on this Turi. Another aspect often left out of this argument is just how many of these drugs are now ending up in our water supply. The effects of this have yet to be fully investigated or understood.
Yeah, the water supply thing is pretty disturbing too. Even though the overall concentrations are pretty low, it is troubling.
In response to another comment. See in context »Wouldn’t a ban on these antibiotics force a major restructuring in the factory farming and CAFO industry? If so, I’d say this could easily be one of the most important policy decisions to come out of this administration. Thanks for posting this.
“force a major restructuring in the factory farming and CAFO industry?”
Lets hope so! We really to restore a sense of humanity and decency to the way we treat livestock. It can’t all be about the cheapest means of production. I understand the argument that making food stuffs as cheap as possible serves us well, but in the long run it’s rather penny wise and pound foolish. We in this country eat far too much meat and too much fat. If meat prices went up people might start eating less of it and eat a healthier diet. Much in the same way raising gas prices force people to drive less.
In response to another comment. See in context »It absolutely would. But I still think it’s the right thing to do.
In response to another comment. See in context »Oh yeah, when I asked if it would, I was definitely asking hopefully.
In response to another comment. See in context »