User Comments

1. 

   3/18/09

   Stillthinking

   I have commented on this so many times in threads that do not deal specifically with antibiotic use in livestock.
   
   Modern factory farming is dangerous to our health and has devastating long term consequences on the environment.
   
   I absolutely abhor the use of feeding of antibiotics to livestock in that it contributes to the rise of superbugs. It allows the continuation of an unsustainable and dangerous practices of feedlots. It goes much farther than just sanitary conditions. It has to do with the unnatural diet of corn, supplements, and rendered protein that livestock is forced to consume in order to hasten maturity. This unnatural diet weakens their immune systems, causes the acid level in their stomachs to rise and forces them to expel large quantities of methane gas. So much methane gas, that modern livestock farming is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gasses today.
   
   The feeding of rendered protein to livestock will eventually lead to an outbreak of Mad Cow disease if further cautions are not taken.
   
   I do not have a lot of confidence that the USDA will be able to make any effective changes. I believe that the only real change will come when consumers become aware of the danger they are putting themselves into and vote with their pocketbook.
   
   Eat organic, eat free range, eat natural.

   [reply]
   1. 

      3/19/09

      Agit8r

      Unfortunately regulatory agencies are filled with corporate operatives, effectively acting as a front to consolidate power into an oligopsony, while providing only marginal protection to the general public. If the new administration wants to make its mark, it can do so by cleaning these agencies up
   2. 

      3/19/09

      timethief

      @stillthinking
      Eat organic, eat free range, eat natural.
      
      That's what my partner and I have been doing for decades now.
   3. 

      3/19/09

      timethief

      @Agit8r
      Cleaning up and restructuring these agencies is certainly what ought to be done but will it be undertaken?
2. 

   3/19/09

   polybore

   Any sort of routine use of anti-biotics, for humans or livestock, is unsustainable because the targeted bacteria will eventually become immune to the antibiotic.
   
   There is a danger that antibiotics are a finite resource. e.g. if all pathogenic bacteria become immune to all known antibiotics then medical microbiology will be flung back to the 1930's and the misery of "blood poisoning".
   
   So the USDA are right on reducing anti-biotics.
   
   Industrialising livestock production invariably means large numbers of livestock concentrated in specific locations. Also it results in a reduction in the number of breeds of livestock as producers go for the maximum yield breeds.
   
   Add to this mix a reduction in genetic diversity in specific breeds through artificial insemination/ genetic manipulation and then you are looking at a biological disease time bomb. In the exact opposite of herd immunity a new or existing disease would rip through the industry.

   [reply]
   1. 

      3/20/09

      Stillthinking

      Do you feel that the USDA actually has the resources to enforce this? I do not. I believe that the only way we can change the way the industry works is to vote with our wallets.
      
      If the average consumer buys organic, antibiotic free, free range and natural and makes sustainable, safe practices a priority in their buying habits, then we will see real change.
      
      Right now, there is too much public opinion that the only people who eat organic and free range are neurotic PETA supporting nut jobs.
      
      This means a large scale, public education campaign on the dangers of antibiotic abuse and the prevention of Mad Cow. The US Meat Industry has huge numbers of lobbyists in DC all dedicated to preventing this from happening.