Stop F*&^ing With Our Food!

U.S. Meat Farmers Brace for Limits on Antibiotics

I was really pleased to see this article on the NY Times website today (link above). Sometimes I get really bummed out thinking that our food system is never going to change, and that the effort that so many people put forth is wasted. And sometimes I think that we are on the cusp on a new global understanding of interconnectedness and responsibility in our food system and environment. Today I am leaning a little bit towards the latter thought, thanks in part to this article. I really do hope that these type of reforms go through and are not thwarted by back-room lobby deals and political horse trading. Big Meat and Big Chemical are both in bed together, and with the policy makers and enforcers in our government. Not to sound too paranoid or anything ... it is just a fact of life and politics and capitalism in our country today. In any case, if the medical community doesn't find it wise to preemptively feed our children antibiotics to prevent childhood illness and improve their growth rate, then why would we do that to animals -- especially ones that we plan to eat? There is some simple logic here that I hope is undeniable and unignorable.

For anyone who has read John Robbins' Food Revolution, I am sure that you got a chuckle out of the National Pork Producers Council's blatant denial of the risks of antibiotic use in livestock:  “There is no conclusive scientific evidence that antibiotics used in food animals have a significant impact on the effectiveness of antibiotics in people.” When the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, European Union, experts at Iowa state University and University of Minnesota, American Medical Association, Pew Charitable Trust, and Infectious Diseases Society of America (to name a few) all agree that there are serious current and potential risks to human health, it seems a little disingenuous for Big Meat to just pretend that there is nothing to worry about.

Keep your fingers crossed ... maybe things will actually change for the better, one step at a time. Until then ... know your farmer, know your food.