The livestock industry is responsible for about 50 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States. (source: United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” 2006) Many scientists believe that routine use of antibiotics may lead to increasingly resistant bacteria – and that means more illnesses we’re not able to contain or control.

The antibiotics are given to animals in two ways – routinely, in their feed, and also when they fall ill. There is no question that a sick animal deserves appropriate care. But keeping animals in confinement (as they are on feedlots) creates an environment that is disease-friendly. The only way to control disease in a feedlot is to put antibiotics into the animal feed, without regard to the actual health of an individual animal.

Whether you’re concerned about treatment of animals, or the quality of the food you’re eating (yes, those antibiotics do pass through to your plate), or disease control for people – routine antibiotics are not a good idea.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Articles - Ten Steps and THM Basics, Meat and Animal Protein. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.