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FDA banning antibiotics in livestock production
Yay!!!!
Obama's FDA Quietly banning antibiotics in livestock production
by beach babe in fl
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banning antibiotics in livestock production
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Wed Jul 07, 2010 at 04:03:13 PM PDT
This is huge! Obama's FDA has begun to ban giving prophylactic antibiotics in livestock production.
Giving animals antibiotics in order to increase food production is a threat to public health and should be stopped, the FDA said
The federal agency says it has the power to ban the practice, but it's starting by issuing "draft guidance" in hopes the food industry will make voluntary changes. After a 60-day public comment period, the guidance will become FDA policy.
- beach babe in fl's diary :: ::
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This is important as giving prophylactic antibiotics to animals in factory farms has contributed to a huge and dangerous public health problem
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
We don?t add antibiotics to baby food and Cocoa Puffs so that children get fewer ear infections. That?s because we understand that the overuse of antibiotics is already creating "superbugs" resistant to medication.
Yet we continue to allow agribusiness companies to add antibiotics to animal feed so that piglets stay healthy and don?t get ear infections. Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock, according to a careful study by the Union of Concerned Scientists ? and that?s one reason we?re seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics.
Yes, you're reading that correctly; seventy percent of all antibiotics in the US go to healthy livestock..that is stunning.
"We don?t give antibiotics to healthy humans," said Robert Martin, who led a Pew Commission on industrial farming that examined antibiotic use. "So why give them to healthy animals just so we can keep them in crowded and unsanitary conditions?"
Of course, this is just the beginning to a safer food supply, but it is a huge step. Factory Farms will not take regulation quietly as Agri-business has been getting it's way in congress for too long. Factory Farms have played a huge role in destroying our environment including being one of the greatest emittors of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change
This is the kind of change we need. This won't be pretty and Big Agri will be fighting all the way, but I think this is the beginning of the end of Factory Farms as the incarnate of some of the most abusive practices to public health and our environment.
Some of you may know that I write a series Macca's Meatless Monday which advocates for reduced consumption of meat for environmental, health and other benefits. My position is that we all need to reduce our consumption of meat and I feel that need is urgent for environmental reasons but absolutely one should avoid factory farmed raised livestock completely.
ACTION ITEM: The best action one can take is to
avoid factory farmed raised livestock or meat entirely. But you can also
make your voice heard by commenting on the proposed banning of
antibiotics in healthy animals
HERE
UPDATE Here is USDA./HHS response to House and Senate re:Antibiotic Resistance in Livestock
I am the 99%.
Re: FDA banning antibiotics in livestock production
While I reeeallly want to be excited about this too, the skeptic in me is worried about this key phrase of the draft guidance:
Big Ag is going to claim that all animals kept in CAFOs, and therefore in extremely crowded conditions, must be given antibiotics to "protect their health." Especially cows, Cows are given antibiotics because forcing them to eat grain, which is not their natural diet (grass is), makes them sick. Factory farmed cows have to have antibiotics to survive. And any animal facility already has a veterinarian on-staff, so that is a moot point. FDA rules only work as well as the FDA enforces them, and I think the majority of us on this board are well aware that the FDA and USDA are in bed with Big Ag. Plus this is only guidance, the article even says the FDA hopes Big Ag will change their practices voluntarily, so that the FDA won't have to expend time and money inspecting them. We also know how well the compliance rate of voluntary programs are. IMHO, government regulations are not a substitute for knowing where your food comes from. That's the only way to really know how your meat is raised.
ETA: I hate being a Debbie Downer, I really do. Honestly, I really wish I could immediately think "YEA!" and have a happy day. But I write environmental compliance for a living, and that has trained me to analyze everything I read for the holes in the presenter's logic. And this is where it gets me
As usual, I agree with Supergreen. There is no way that big ag is going to let this happen. It would indeed mean an end to factory farming, which would be a great thing. But it's just not going to hapen for a lot of reasons (our government's relationship to big ag being a central one). One of them is that people would HAVE to cut down on their meat consumption and...well I hate to say this, but I just don't see the average person wanting to give up their $.99 cheeseburger.