FDA Says Factory Farm Antibiotic Use Is Public Health Threat
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From the Wall Street Journal:
“The FDA says that using antibiotics in animals simply to increase production or spur rapid growth is a public-health hazard. [...]
The concern is that the widespread use of antibiotics in both animals and people fosters resistance in the microbes that afflict humans, making infections more difficult and sometimes impossible to treat.”
This isn’t the first time the issue has gotten major attention. Check out the report from CBS:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
From the video:
- “overuse of antibiotics in animals is leading to the creation of new strains of drug resistant bacteria that could make humans sick.”
- “drug resistant infections have skyrocketed over the past few decades killing an estimated 70 thousand Americans last year alone …It’s an emerging health crisis.”
- “my theory is one day we are going to have an organism that is resistant to everything”
- “some [bacteria] can be passed on through undercooked meat”
- “evidence of MRSA has been found in the nation’s meat supply”
- “it could be in the water runoff from the farm… it could be in the air”
- “antibiotic use on farms is [...] widespread”
- “antibiotics keep the cost of meat lower and the profits higher”
- “no one is monitoring it”
This is so crazy! If we Americans could be more like other countries and treat meat as a delicacy or a once-in-a-while food, (or, you know, be awesome vegetarians/vegans ^.^) we wouldn’t need to keep the cost of meat so low that it damages public health. Our meat is already banned from other countries, as are our animal-rearing methods… we are all going to be sick for the sake of other people’s need for cheap meat and profits… disgusting