Industrial pig farm. Photo via honestmeat.com
There's a better way to do it. Find it! ~Thomas Edison
One of the problems with industrial farming is the use of antibiotics. 70% of antibiotics in the U.S. go to the animals. Unlike human use, industrial farmers feed it to their animals daily to prevent sickness and accelerate growth. That's like feeding your kids antibiotics every day (for the rest of their lives) as soon as they start nursery school so you can 1) fit more kids in a class and 2) prevent them all from catching each others' colds. Yup, that's crazy. BUT, you can do something about it! This overactive drugging impacts you because:
- It creates superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics (like MRSA). Bacteria become exposed to antibiotics, and then the ones that survive are no longer resistant. It's kind of like a vaccine for bugs.
- You end up drinking antibiotics. The drugs end up as runoff in land and water. There are more and more drugs showing up in our water supply. If I want any, I'd rather take it myself, thanks.
- You can end up eating antibiotics. If the meat or milk you ingest was fed antibiotics, it can end up in you. Yuck.
- Farm workers are getting sick from handling animals. They end up with infections that are drug-resistant (like MRSA). That's sad.
It's taken a while, but the government is beginning to agree it's crazy. The Department of Agriculture, FDA and Center for Disease Control are all urging farmers to stop feeding antibiotics to their animals. There are hearings on Capitol Hill this week, and a draft bill in Congress banning the use of antibiotics in healthy animals. The farm industry is fighting back hard since the drugs allow them to cram more animals in a small area, and the animals also grow faster with the drugs. It will take years before any laws are actually enacted, but you can impact them and you can avoid antibiotics in your food now.
What to do - Avoid Animal Antibiotics
- Buy responsibly produced meat, dairy and eggs. Look for labels that say grass-fed, pasture-fed, free-range or organic. You can buy directly from growers at farmer's markets, where you can ask if they use antibiotics, or just ask the butcher how the animals are grown.
- Don't eat industrially-produced meat at restaurants. Ask your waiter what farms the animals are from - are they from responsible farms or raised industrially?
- Contact your Congressmen and tell them to support the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA). Here's an easy way to act on PAMTA.
Want to learn more?
- What is industrial farming? (Mindful Eats)
- CBS News on guidelines for antibiotic usage in animals
- CBS News on impact of antibiotics in animals
- Pew Campaign on saving antibiotics
- WebMD on MRSA
What I ate: blueberries, cherries, strawberries, tomato, Teas Tea white tea, chocolate milk, 1 latte, Seeds of Change rice pilaf, raw milk cheddar NYCheese, sauteed salmon + rainbow chard, brown rice, seaweed, Mindful Mix (macadamias, almonds, walnuts, goji berries, cranberries), 1 slice dried mangos, Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Half-Baked ice cream, 40 oz. water
Exercise: ran 4 miles, 60 min vinyassa yoga
