Food Production and Antibiotic Resistance

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/11/080811fa_fact_groopman

Above is a link to a relatively comprehensive article published in the New Yorker on antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria dubbed 'superbugs'. The article was the cover story for that issue of the publication. It begins by describing the overwhelming problem facing physicians who are finding that the antibiotics that they have relied upon for decades to combat infection, fight illness, cure diseases, and hasten recovery, are increasingly ineffective against new forms of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The article goes on to describe how the use of antibiotics by the meat and poultry industry in the United States has largely contributed to the growing medical issues surrounding antibiotic resistance found in many modern strains of dangerous pathogens and bacteria. Antibiotics had proven especially useful in the factory farming industry. Fueled partly by the fast-food industry, skyrocketing demands for inexpensive meat products helped create an ideal market for the modern factory farm. Unfortunately, the over-cramped conditions of the animal’s living spaces and the unsanitary environments (dead animals, excrement, and food lining the floors of their living quarters) that accompanied those low operating costs increased the likelihood of infection and illness among the animals. Antibiotics were seen as an effective method to treat this problem, however, rather than treating the animals that had become ill, (which would be expensive, time consuming and difficult) the industry realized it was cheaper to administer a low level of antibiotics to all animals in a given factory farm setting as a preventative approach to animal illness and infection. As a perceived added benefit, the use of antibiotics increased the growth rate of the animals and accordingly the productivity and profit margins of the farms. Unfortunately the article explains how this particular method of antibiotic use coupled with the unsanitary conditions of the factories created a ‘petri dish’ for bacteria to develop resistance to those antibiotics. This is an example of how modern technology and medicine cannot always supplant traditional methods of food production and animal husbandry, and there are perhaps dangerous consequences that must be considered or at least acknowledged in the present state of affairs regarding antibiotic use in factory farming. If we need these medicines to be effective for humans we must use them prudently and responsibly for combating illness, not preventatively and recklessly for increasing profits.