Antibiotics And Meat

Thanks, Linda (again), for alerting me to something that should be of interest to everyone in America.  80% of the antibiotics sold in this country are bought and used by the meat industry.  They are injected into the animals slaughtered for food in this country.  Who knew?  I certainly didn't, and these antibiotics are making us sick.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately two million people acquire bacterial infections in U.S. hospitals each year.  About 70 percent of those infections are resistant to at least one antibiotic.  The trends toward increasing antibiotic resistance show no sign of slowing down.

Why are infections in people becoming resistant to antibiotics? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association all have highlighted the link between non-therapeutic uses of antibiotics in food animal production and the crisis of antibiotic resistance in humans.

The Food and Drug Administration, a government agency in charge of safeguarding the public health, has done shockingly little to protect us.  We as consumers CAN do something.  Linda sent me a petition to sign requesting that Trader Joe's, one of the largest purveyors of meat in this country, buy and sell only meat that has not been treated with these antibiotics.  I was quick to sign this petition.  We can all ask for more information from our local grocer about the source of their meat and determine whether or not the meat has been treated with antibiotics.  It's a good bet it has.  Finding out this information is difficult, and buying meat that has not been treated with antibiotics is definitely more expensive, but in the long run worth it. 

I will definitely be more cognizant of this fact in the future, and try to buy beef, pork and chicken that has been raised without the use of antibiotics.  It will be more expensive, but then I should be eating less animal protein anyway, and this is a good way to do it.