Obama Admin. Supports End to Antibiotic Use to Spur Animal Growth

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — 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.

In written testimony to the House Rules Committee, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle — done to encourage rapid growth — should cease. And Dr. Sharfstein said farmers should no longer be able to use antibiotics in animals without the supervision of a veterinarian.

Both practices lead to the development of bacteria that are immune to many treatments, he said.

The hearing was held to discuss a measure proposed by Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the Rules Committee. It would ban seven classes of antibiotics important to human health from being used in animals, and would restrict other antibiotics to therapeutic and some preventive uses.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/health/policy/14fda.html?_r=1&hp

let's hope they end up banning at least those seven classes.

I would think the use of antibiotics could be nothing but good for corporations. And therefore I am suspicious.

The end of this disastrous practice would be great.

And that is the driver behind this cover story.

The Corporation can hide behind the regulations and deflect criticisms from the shareholders without admitting that the methods they use to raise animals is broken, thus protecting the existing methods of production at home for as long as possible.


The doctrine of "Substantial Equivalence" applies to meat as well.

What you say makes a lot of sense.

It sounds like what I heard about the norther ports making lots of money importing slaves and selling them to the south where they were used to pick cotton. Until automated cotton pickers came into existence. Then slavery was no longer profitable for the north.
I don't know if it is true or not, I read it a long time ago. It sounds familiar.

My family has switched over totally to locally grown organic beef, pork, and chicken. It's a little more expensive, but not nearly as high as we thought it would be.

Hormones and antibiotics were potentially the worst, or seriously damn close, substances they could have ever chosen to introduce into our food supplies. More sickening is in the end even those that benefited financially will lose, just as everyone else.

All for greed.

The sad thing about all of this is that our educational system is owned and operated by the Corporations, who churn out gullible farmers that have been taught GAAP, or Generally Accepted Agricultural Practices, with emphasis on the products of the Ag Chemical and Seed companies. In fact, in order to get a loan from the USDA, you MUST follow the corporate developed methods and techniques in order to get a loan.

Now I could understand that they want to get paid back, but they basically disallow any independent thought or agricultural methods to be used to grow produce. I have done a great deal of research on the practices and methods of indigineous people and their techiques of growing crops. Most intersting is the history of the Pacific Islands, who watch thousands of years of successfull Agroforestry technique destroyed in lieu of the cash crop, Spam in a can, whiskey and flour. Many times by foreign interests looking to make a quick profit.

Well, the legacy is that most Tahitians can't even name the trees that supplied nearly everything to them 100 years ago. The home garden is disappearing, and the valuable multipurpose trees are removed so the Tractor can plow the soil for a cash crop of Casava monocrop. They now spend 90% of GDP on food imports. That is just one example. The 1970's destroy the idigenous agriculture at a frightening rate.

It's happing in South America right now as well. We have exported the One size fit's all Oil based, mechanized monocrop to everyone, and they are to stupid to see what they are losing, as long as they get a quick buck.

The same thing happened in Jamaica as well.

I use the old methods, and I do quite well with a machete, a mower, and once in a while, a weedeater. I use lots of trees which enrich the soil and provide shade. I don't force my plants to overproduce, and I return as much to the land as I can. I use chickens as pest control and conversion devices, they are wonderful creatures, and yes, I eat them afterwards. I honor them by enabling a happy, safe environment for the time they are on earth. It's the only honorable thing to do, considering that they give us egg's, meat and labor.

there is more than enough blame to go around for the destruction of indigenous people's livelihoods.

Thank you for such an informative reply.

I love how you honor those chickens! :)

It's hard to explain the joy when a random chicken takes time out its day and decides to jump on your kene and say hello. Then, let itself get patted and loved for it's courage and gentle nature. We are truly connected to nature, and it's a shame that man has lost that connection for the most part.

I used to maintain cats and dogs as pets. At this point, I treat all of nature as my pets, as it is cheaper and easier to let the animals be themselves. It also reinforces the awareness of the dwindling number of wild animals in our immediate environment. I don't trust what is in pet food anymore, and I refuse to support that multi-billion dollar business that serves up who knows what to our pets.

I have learned to be a good steward of the land, and happily give 10% back to nature by providing a quiet, peaceful environment.

Maybe I'll sound like less of a whack-job to my friends and family when I start down this road of conversation now.

From the article:

The use of antibiotics for “purposes other than for the advancement of animal or human health should not be considered judicious use,” Dr. Sharfstein said in his written testimony. “Eliminating these uses will not compromise the safety of food.”

I couldn't agree more.

Early 90's, so it took about 15 years for the CAFO's to kill the small farmer, make farming grow to an industrial process, pollute huge swathes of the country, and develope environments where disease is a stonesthrow away from the food supply at any given moment.

Starting last year we decided to buy all of our meat from a local organic farmer (beef, pork, and free-range chicken). The quality difference is amazing.

may come down even further.

Animals are raised in such close quarters, that the only way to keep them alive from the overcrowding and all the horrors that it entails. Animals lay in their shit, jostle one another, breath horrible amounts of fecal dust, and are generally stressed out for their entire lives.

Then, when the animals are slaughter, the resistant forms of pathogens spread from the carcass to the meat, and will yield huge recalls of meat, poisoning many people at times, and in some cases, causing death.

They are not using antibiotics in isolation. They are also using growth hormones in conjunction.

CAFO's are a relatively modern invention, but already the costs are unsustainable. If Corn was not subsidized by US and the Government, Farmers would actually have some incentive for growing other crops, instead of flooding the market with uneconomical cheap corn.

We have a severe problem with obesity in America, and we are seeing much more Diabetes and disease. These unhealthy, medicated, enhanced and stressed out animals certainly do affect us, but people would rather not take responsibility for the CAFO's and the similarity to German Concentration camps.

This doesn't even take into account the horrifying adverse effects on the environment, such as the "Manure Lagoon", and all of the problems it causes. Just like boiling water Nuclear Reactors, when you scale up from 60 megawatts to several hundred, things get much more difficult to control. The same thing applies to a chicken barn with 800,000 animals in it. Or a hog barn with 8,000 animals in it.

Their is a lot of information regarding this business on the web. The truth is out there and is just now coming to the public's attention.

Again, this statement by the Obama administration is only acknowledging known problems with the status quo, as well as bowwing under the pressure of closing worlwide markets for animals raised in these unhealthy conditions.

The US media is so skillful in burying stories that shine a negative light on CAFO's that you realize that BigAg pulls a lot of strings in what we are allowed to see and hear about.

Suppose you feed your cattle corn or pump them full of hormones to give more milk. Both practices can increase inflammation and subsequently infection so one could claim the antibiotics are being used therapeutically.

:hi:

I HOPE this happens soon!(now)

Glad to see they rake this issue seriously.

As a former health care giver, I am shocked and saddened to see what has become of health care in America. $ 1. 4 million is being spent per day in DC by the health care lobbyists so your elected representative is getting taken care of and has quality health care we pay for and can't afford ourselves for our families, I know what is deemed, defended and supported in Tennessee and Virginia as quality health care and clearly profit care comes ahead of patient care. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 MRSA ( methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureas ) is infesting our communities because filthy, uncaring hospitals and emergency rooms are breeding them and spreading them into our schools, homes, restaurants. How many more Americans' will be diseased or die while 74 % of Americans' are begging for health care reform ? More people died in America last year from MRSA complications than AIDS. When MRSA and a flu bug start mixing, it won't be pretty and we are being infected by the very health care system we depend on and trust to keep us safe and healthy.

And that big ag refuses to relent, because the whole US system of CAFO's depends on it to function without unsustainable animal mortality. On the other hand, they can't sell the huge amounts of animals to the export market, so they are stuck.

The same thing is happening with GMO food commodities. Amny countries absolutely refuse to allow their importation. Yet, they may allow it as long as it is only used for animal feed... Ask yourself, do we really need to be subsidize a foreign country's animal feed?


It's nothing but common sense for this practice to end. Obama is just making political points.

Now is we get to see the Mandatory Labeling of GMO food, then I will maybe start paying attention, because that would be huge progress.

even starting vet school.

Blah! Blah! Blah! Poutrage! Squawk! Bark bark yip!

Or did your Tourettes just kick in?

What exactly is it that you have to offer to this topic?

Guess it is

ahhh... that felt great!

Hit a nerve, did they?

but it felt great telling that poster what I thought. Wouldn't change a thing in my post.

From the article:

"The legislation is opposed by farm organizations like the National Pork Producers Council. The farm lobby’s opposition makes its passage unlikely."

It's great that Obama supports this, but the corporations will grease the lackeys in Congress and the proposal will disappear.

If not, then it's change.

Too bad about Congress... no surprise there, though.

It is great that Obama backs it and that is change indeed.
But the end result, due to our corrupt Congress will be no change.

war in Afghanistan and propping up Goldman Sachs, right?
:sarcasm:

I am happy to see any sign of improvement on any of the many fronts we face.

I think about the antibiotics I am giving to my children every time I feed them meat from the grocery store. It's time to change this. Thank you to the Obama administration.

....to a wretchedly poor country that needs them.

Like that'll happen!

But it wouldn't be a bad idea.

I just hope this is the tip of the Ice berg that needs to melt away letting in a new dawn for our country along with single payer health care and investigations then prosecutions for the lies & crimes of the past admin!

More news like this please.

Farmers will freak. Antibiotics make livestock business much more profitable.

:thumbsup:

it's nice to have some *good* news on the front page :)

I thought we would be stuck with this terrible practice and more superbugs forever. This is really good news.

:rofl:

Nice to have a president that respects SCIENCE!

It's about time somebody finally had the balls to take this on. I hope he carries through.

We'll see who they listen to... citizens or industry lobbyists.

:eyes:

Most, if not all, large factory farms already have veterinarians on staff. They would continue use of antibiotics "under their supervision". As a small farmer, though, I would have to pay for a vet visit for a sick animal that I already know just needs antibiotics.

to prosecute those who continue to use antibiotics for "the wrong reason."

who ingest them daily.