Antibiotics in Our Food System

Bacteria on the Farm Do Not Stay on the Farm

Because of cramped conditions, poor sanitation, and antibiotic overuse, disease-causing bacteria are more likely to develop in industrial livestock facilities than in small or backyard livestock farms.²¹ Workers at these facilities often carry (unknowingly) antibiotic-resistant bacteria into the general public; as one example, MRSA, a now-common staph bacteria resistant to many antibiotics, has been found to persist in the nasal passages of workers at industrial hog operations, even following extended periods away from these facilities. ²⁶²⁷  Manure lagoons can also overflow or burst during natural disasters, like they did during Hurricane Florence in 2018, which adds an additional threat to health and safety when clean water and medical access are already limited.²⁸

With huge quantities of manure routinely sprayed onto fields surrounding CAFOs, both antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria can leach into surface and groundwater, contaminating drinking wells and endangering the health of people living close to large livestock facilities.³⁶ In particular:

• The VFD does not clearly define the terms of the veterinarian-client relationship and does not set strict limits on duration or refills of prescribed drugs, allowing for possible misuse of some drugs under the guise of disease prevention rather than actual limited use for treatment.
• The FDA’s list of medically important drugs needs updating as new drugs become used in medicine as resistance evolves.
• The restrictions on medically important antibiotics only account for drugs delivered in food and water, allowing for the continued over-the-counter sale of medically important drugs delivered by injection or other methods.³⁷

While the FDA announced a five-year plan to tackle these remaining concerns in 2019, some critics suggest the time frames should be accelerated to account for the urgent threat antibiotic resistance poses.³⁸

Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act

Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the only microbiologist in Congress, has introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) several times in the House of Representatives, most recently in the 2015-2016 session.³⁹ First introduced in 1999, the bill would phase out the non-therapeutic use of eight classes of medically important antibiotics and restrict the use of many other antibiotics in animal feed, while allowing the use of these drugs for treating sick animals. The prior time it was introduced, the bill had 78 Congressional cosponsors and was endorsed by 450 health, farming, food safety, religious, labor and consumer advocate groups. Fifty cities around the country have passed resolutions encouraging the passage of PAMTA and its Senate corollary, the Prevention of Antibiotic Resistance Act. Nonetheless, the bills have never made it out of committee.⁴⁰

World Health Organization Plan

In 2015, United Nations member states approved a World Health Organization plan to address antibiotic resistance, calling on countries to draw up action plans within two years.⁴⁴ A recent study shows that banning GPAs in Denmark led to little more than a one percent drop in production of pork and only a slight rise in poultry production, which was offset in part by eliminating GPA costs; a ban in the US would likely produce similar results.⁴⁵ Given these negligible impacts to the industry and the potentially catastrophic human and economic costs of a “post-antibiotic” world, it is imperative that governments and industry take swift action to curtail the overuse of these critical drugs.

Responsible livestock production doesn’t have to completely exclude antibiotics — they are still vital tools for treating sick animals that need to be used carefully. Farmers who raise animals on pasture with sustainable practices do not use antibiotics for growth promotion or other non-therapeutic reasons. In part, they rely less on drugs because the animals are raised in cleaner environments than those of confinement operations, with less stress and the ability to express natural behaviors, and thus are less prone to sickness. Generally, these farms use antibiotics only to treat acute infections in sick animals, just as they are used to treat human illness.

Animal Welfare Approved, a label certifying high animal welfare standards on livestock farms, includes standards for antibiotic use:

• To help eliminate or reduce vulnerability to disease and the need for antibiotics at therapeutic levels, Animal Welfare Approved encourages the appropriate use of vaccines on an individual or group basis for the prevention of disease.
• Any sick or injured animals on the farm must be treated immediately to minimize pain and distress. This must include veterinary treatment if required. Recommended Homeopathic, herbal or other non-antibiotic alternative treatments are preferred. If alternative treatments are not suitable or not effective or if a veterinarian has recommended antibiotic treatment, this must be administered.
• Animals treated with an antibiotic must not be slaughtered or used to produce milk for the Animal Welfare Approved program before a period of time has passed that is at least twice the licensed withdrawal period of the antibiotic used.⁴⁶

While USDA organic standards prohibit antibiotic use in animals raised organically, they also mandate that sick animals must be treated; if a sick animal is given antibiotics to treat infection, its meat or other products cannot be sold as organic, so these animals must be sold off to conventional producers after treatment.

• Find sustainably raised meat at your local farmers’ market or directly from a local farmer. Learn more and find producers at Good Meat Project.
• Whenever possible, purchase meat raised under standards of third-party certifiers such as Animal Welfare Approved or American Grassfed Association, or USDA Certified Organic. Learn more about labels from our Food Label Guide.