Meat Industry Insists Everything is A-OK With Antibiotic Use, Despite Everyone Else's Conclusion That It Isn't
The FDA's guidelines on antibiotic use in meat production formalize what many government officials, scientists, doctors and even consumers have known for years -- that antibiotic use in agriculture has gotten out of hand and should be curtailed. But the meat industry continues to insist that everything is just fine and that regulations are pointless and unnecessary.
On a conference call on Monday, Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA's principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said that the meat industry should stop using antibiotics on pigs, cattle and chicken simply for the purpose of making them grow faster or with less feed, a practice that allows farmers to lower their costs. The FDA mandated no specific regulations -- only vague and voluntary guidelines -- but it's a signal of what's to come, and it marks the first time the agency has taken any action whatsoever on the issue of antibiotics in agriculture.
Instead of trying to work with the FDA, which after all is not proposing anything even approaching a ban on all animal antibiotic use, the National Pork Producers Council looks to be gearing up for a fight. Dave Warner, a spokesman for the NPPC, slammed the FDA's move by saying that there "appears to be no science" behind it, even though most of the 19 pages of the agency's draft guidance document are devoted to just that. Warner also protested that the FDA's potential requirement that farmers consult with veterinarians before using antibiotics is a bad idea because of the shortage of livestock vets.
It's a curiously defensive stance given that the pork insists they already don't use antibiotics for growth promotion, only when pigs are "exposed to illness or are sick." Similarly, the cattle industry says that antibiotic use "should be limited to prevent or control disease."
So far, the National Chicken Council and the National Cattleman's Beef Association have been silent on the FDA's guidelines, but in the past the meat industry has spoken with a united voice when it comes to antibiotics.
The meat industry is right about one thing though. The well-documented problem of bacteria being resistant to human antibiotics is not, by and large, the fault of farmers dousing their animals with too much penicillin and tetracycline. The blame for that rests with doctors, who got into the habit (and are now working to get out if it) of writing prescriptions for antibiotics like they were tablets of ibuprofen.
This, however, doesn't justify the status quo, since it's hard not to see a looming problem. The widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture (the Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that 70% of all antibiotics are used on animals) has already led to antibiotic-resistant bacteria on farms and in the meat we buy at supermarkets and probably in restaurants.
Of course, we could wait until lots of people actually get sick from those farm-based bacteria before taking action. For once, though, the FDA has decided it might be a good idea to do something before a major problem develops.
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