Hogging antibiotics
It’s tough for me to get to work in DC without seeing posters on the subway with pink rosy pigs, asking “Who’s hogging our antibiotics?”
The Pew Charitable Trusts has initiated a campaign to limit the use of antibiotics in livestock. As the ads point out, routine use of antibiotics in farm animals can foster the development of antibiotic-resistance bacteria than can infect humans.
For years, microbiologists have raised their thin, meager voices against this practice. But now they seemed to be joined by some other voices that might carry wider impact. For instance, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof weighed in this March against rourtine use of antibiotics in agriculture. Last week Principal deputy FDA commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, testified before congress on the issue, saying:
"Purposes other than for the advancement of animal or human health should not be considered judicious use" says Sharfstein.
The problem is that many animals, raised in cramped quarters, receive antibiotics in their feed much of their lives. Cows that eat corn, instead of grass, are more susceptible to infection. Even the the family farm I took my kid to last month, the friendly one with the pettable happy cows, fed their chickens bags of “Medicated” feed.
Bills to restrict the practice have been kicking around the US Congress for years now, but agriculture interests have kept them from going anywhere. It’s conceivable this year’s version might have a better chance.
Comments
The practice of cramming pigs and chickens into small quarters/pens stops the pesky beasts from moving around and (god forbid) burning calories. Of course, you can pen ten times as many beasts in the same area;$$$$$. Their flesh with its lack of muscle tone resembles mush or should I say tender. I find this cramming practice immoral not because of the hideous lives for these unfortunate beasts; we do slaughter them ,but for the infectious risk. In the short term it's appropriate to feed antibiotics to reduce this risk. But this short term fix raises a bigger problem for society. This problem is that this practice makes our antibiotics ineffective. We are creating super bacteria. They are feeding our bacterial/medical breakthroughs to hogs and chickens. This, put franklu is really very stupid. We need to stop this before an infectious genie gets out of the bottle. This could be the calamity of the century. The CDC says we WILL have a pandemic. Should we be allowing the conditions for a PANDEMIC to thrive for the sake higher profits for a few family farm destroying companies. To explain, this pen cramming practice took the livelihood from family farms and de-populated rural America.
This practice could have benifits. The price to put weight on animals has dratically reduced, but the profit margin increased instead of the price at the grocery. We need to look at this much more closely.
Posted by: joe citizen | August 3, 2009 12:18 AM