Comments about ‘My view: Stop feeding antibiotics to livestock’

There are already strict rules in place about antibiotics. Milk can't be marketed if it has antibiotics in it. Either can meet. Organic is hard to grow if you don't want weeds in your food. Be grateful for farmers that keep you alive with the things they put on the food you eat so you can have it in abundance. And safe as well.

higv, it's not getting antibiotics in my food from the livestock that I'm worried about. It's getting E. coli, staph, Listeria, or a number of the other bacteria which commonly cause food-borne illness I'm worried about. If those bacteria are resistant to everything we can throw at them because we selected for them by dosing the livestock they were in with antibiotics, then the next time a restaurant undercooks their hamburger or gets contaminated spinach, cantaloupe, etc., thousands will die.

Thank you, David Erickson, for your comments on the use of of antibiotics in the production of meats. I have long been a proponent of abolishing this practice in our country. I will be writing our representatives to urge them to support PAMTA.

higv, I am not sure what you meant by your comment "organic is hard to grow if you don't want weeds in your food". Organic grass-fed meat is nutritionally superior to its factory farm produced counterpart. The philosophy behind organic production of meat calls for providing conditions that meet the health needs and natural behavior of the animal. Thus, organic livestock are given access to the outdoors, fresh air, water, sunshine, grass and pasture, and organic feed. Sounds a lot better than antibiotic fed, factory farmed meat production to me.

What do you get if you prohibit giving antibiotics to livestock?... More sick animals.

Do you want to eat meat from sick animals?

The primary purpose for giving livestock antibiotics it to prevent infection and illness, not to enhance growth. If we prohibit giving them antibiotics there would be more illness, less healthy meat, and more animals that die from illnesses (which would make meat cost more because more animals would die, and would lower the quality of the meat in our markets (because some deseased meat would get through inspections, there's no doubt of that).

So... do we REALLY want a law that prohibits giving antibiotics to livestock?

Do what I do, just arrange to buy a beef direct from the grower. Whether half, whole, or quarters, most producers will work with consumers DIRECTLY if asked.

Or you can just contact a meat cutter in any rural area and they will arrange the whole purchase if you want.

@2 bits

Do we REALLY want antibiotic resistant bacteria strains going around?

Its hard to enjoy a nice steak when you have died from contracting a simple throat infection.

Take a look at the mortality rates from infections and general life expectancy before and after antibiotics were around, it should hopefully make you realise how important it is not to use them unless absolutely needed.

We expect a cheap, high protein diet for growing numbers of people. This is lunacy, and the real costs will begin to show themselves.