Cornucopia’s Take: Antibiotic resistance is responsible for 25,000 deaths and countless illnesses each year, although the FDA continues to allow farmers to use many antibiotics at their discretion. Cornucopia supports stricter rules and an end to voluntary programs.
FDA asked to restrict antibiotics on livestock
The Verge
by Angela Chen
Advocacy groups fear this could lead to antibiotic-resistant bugs that hurt humans
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Advocacy groups have petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration to restrict the use of certain antibiotics given to livestock. They claim that using these antibiotics contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bugs that are dangerous to humans, and that the FDA’s efforts to encourage farmers to stop haven’t been effective.
Three years ago, the FDA created a voluntary program that “disapproved” of the use of antibiotics to promote weight gain in livestock. But the problem is that many of these same antibiotics are FDA-approved for treating disease and so farmers can still use them. Farmers who overuse antibiotics, or give them to animals before they’re visibly sick, risk the development of these antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The advocacy groups — including the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Natural Resources Defense Council — claim that the voluntary program isn’t enough, given that antibiotic use in food-producing livestock has actually grown by 5 percent since the program began.
