Antibiotics used on animals intended for food has become a major health concern over the last two decades. Doctors have been asking the FDA to limit the use of antibiotics in our food because of the increasing threat of antibiotic-resistant illnesses.
For decades scientists, consumer group and doctors including the American Medical Association (AMA) have asked the US government to limit the use of antibiotics in animals that we consumers eventually eat for food.
The US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has long said they wanted to limit the amount of antibiotics that can be given to livestock and Congress blocked any action and the FDA withdrew any actions that they could have taken.
This concern goes back as far as 1977 when the FDA first recognized the dangers of using antibiotics in feed for animals and proposed the limits on the amount of antibiotics, mainly penicillin and tetracycline’s that could be used in animal feed.
And now, after 34 years of trying to get the use of antibiotics in animal feed regulated, it is all over with no action ever taken.
How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is a Danger to Us All
The overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals has been a concern for decades. Doctors have been over-prescribing antibiotics for many years for health problems like colds, sore throats, flu, and ear-aches. These are all viruses which antibiotics have no effect on.
Antibiotics should only be used on bacterial infections and not a virus. Yet parents demand some medicine when their children get sick and doctors give in, and continue prescribing antibiotics like penicillin for any and all kinds of viral illnesses.
The overuse of antibiotics has caused what is known as superbugs, bacteria that have become resistant to normal antibiotics and penicillin. Superbugs like antibiotic-resistant infections include MSRA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
MSRA now kills more Americans than AIDS. Another study found that 45% of those who worked at hog farms had MSRA and is turning up more in communities that are near these hog farms. You can also read How Antibiotics Hurts Our Health.
Antibiotics in Our Food
Not only have doctors over-prescribed penicillin and antibiotics for people, but the use of antibiotics in animal feed and for animals also adds to this problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs like MSRA.
Those who produce animals for food like cattle that we eat every day in steaks, hamburgers, burritos, chicken and turkey use antibiotics in their animal feed. A sick animal brings no money to those ranchers and feedlots, so they give sick animals antibiotics so they can be at least minimally healthy to be sold.
And these same livestock producers also regularly give antibiotics to healthy animals in their feed, every day to keep the animals from becoming sick and to promote faster growth. This would be like all of us taking antibiotics every day just so we don’t get sick, and that would be dangerous and ridiculous.
How Serious is the Overuse of Antibiotics in Our Food?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently reported that 80% of antibiotic use in the United States goes to livestock and animals for our food. And 90% of these antibiotics used in our food are given as animal feed so the animals do not end up sick living in such unsanitary conditions.
Another study conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientist found that 70% of all antibiotic use in the United States is used in the feed of healthy animals, 14% of the antibiotics used were for sick animals and 16% of the antibiotic uses went to humans and our pets for health reasons.
Since the FDA and doctors first recognized this overuse of antibiotics as a major health concern, the problem has only gotten worse instead of better.
The estimated use of antibiotics as non-therapeutic reasons in animals has risen from 16 million pounds in 1985 to 25 million pounds of antibiotics in 2001. And still, the FDA refuses to address and correct this problem.
Antibiotics in our food come from the animal feed and herbicides such as Roundup that is sprayed on many crops. These antibiotics are known to be obesogens, which disrupt our endocrine system, disrupt our hormones and destroy the good gut bacteria.
The US Congress blocked the study of limiting antibiotics in our food on December 22, 2011, which stopped any type of action the FDA could pursue. This is obviously the work of our politicians who seemingly are paid only by lobbyists.
Antibiotics in our food come from the animal feed and herbicides such as Roundup that is sprayed on many crops. These antibiotics are known to be obesogens, which disrupt our endocrine system, disrupt our hormones and destroy the good gut bacteria.
Congress, FDA, and Politics
The US Congress blocked the study of limiting antibiotics in our food on December 22, 2011, which stopped any type of action the FDA could pursue. This is obviously the work of our politicians who seemingly are paid only by lobbyists.
Who could benefit from this type of refusal? That would not only be the pharmaceutical companies that make these antibiotics but also the feedlot, livestock, hog and poultry producers.
These government agencies that are supposed to be protecting our food supply and our health do not seem to care about anything other than their lobbyists and big business. In my opinion, these types of politicians and their actions are so blatant and obvious anymore, that something needs to be done.
The current FDA wording in this decision is “to focus its efforts for now on the potential for voluntary reform and the promotion of the judicious use of antimicrobials in the interest of public health.”
Those in charge of our important food safety organizations include the US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, a state that has large hog farm and commercial feedlot operations.
Michael Taylor is the FDA’s deputy commissioner of food safety, otherwise known as the czar of American food safety. Mr. Taylor is best known as a former executive of Monsanto. So the next time an American politician talks about keeping our food safe, take it with a grain of organic salt.
These government agencies that are supposed to be protecting our food supply and our health do not seem to care about anything other than their lobbyists and big business. In my opinion, these types of politicians and their actions are so blatant and obvious anymore, that something needs to be done.
The current FDA wording in this decision is “to focus its efforts for now on the potential for voluntary reform and the promotion of the judicious use of antimicrobials in the interest of public health.”
Those in charge of our important food safety organizations include the US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, a state that has large hog farm and commercial feedlot operations.
Michael Taylor is the FDA’s deputy commissioner of food safety, otherwise known as the czar of American food safety. Mr. Taylor is best known as a former executive of Monsanto. So the next time an American politician talks about keeping our food safe, take it with a grain of organic salt.
2014 FDA Update
As little as it seems, the FDA is finally seeing the light with the overuse of antibiotics in our food. According to a recent article in the NY Times, the FDA has proposed a new policy that will limit the use of antibiotics in chicken, hogs, and cows for the use of making the animals grow bigger.
Food producers will also have to get a prescription to use antibiotics for sick animals. This program is voluntary at this time and the FDA believed everyone will comply including the antibiotic industry.
2018 FDA Update
The FDA announced their "Implementation of GFI #213, Continuing Efforts to Address Antimicrobial Resistance". And currently in 2022, the FDA continues to update their policy as the problem continues to be recognized as a dangerous health threat. [1]
According to the FDA news release, this is what they have to say. Of the 292 new animal drug applications initially affected by Guidance for Industry #213:
- 84 were completely withdrawn
- Of the remaining 208 applications,
- 93 applications for oral dosage form products intended for use in water were converted from over-the-counter to prescription status
- 115 applications for products intended for use in feed were converted from over-the-counter to veterinary feed directive status
- Production (e.g., growth promotion) indications were withdrawn from all (31) applications that included such indications for use.
What Can You Do
Even if you eat a vegan or vegetarian diet, or only eat organic and grass-fed beef, you are still at risk. These antibiotic-resistant superbugs are still just that, antibiotic resistance and you could become ill with MSRA or another type of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.
If you can buy only grass-fed beef and organic poultry, it might just send a message to these food producers that you are fed up with the overuse of antibiotics in our food and the blatant risk to our health. Send a message to your congressman and senator that you are tired of this and demand they do something about the antibiotics in our food.
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 2011-2019 Sam Montana
Resources:
[1] U.S. Food and Drug Administration
