Antibiotics in Livestock

We all love to eat and we like knowing that our food is safe! Here we are: David, Cooper, me and Derek (my brother) enjoying breakfast at Mijita in San Francisco.


A while ago I posted about the dangers of eating meat- producers use all sorts of dangerous chemicals and antibiotics on a regular basis to ensure better profits. They have no concern about nutrition or our health.


A few weeks ago the federal government took notice and finally made a decision, citing drug resistance, they have restricted more antibiotics in livestock! 

Ranchers must restrict their use of a critical class of antibiotics in cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys because such practices may have contributed to the growing threat in people of bacterial infections that are resistant to treatment.

Cephalosporins commonly treat humans as well as animals like chickens.

The medicines are known as cephalosporins and include brands like Cefzil and Keflex. They are among the most common antibiotics prescribed to treat pneumonia, strep throat, and skin and urinary tract infections. Surgeons also often use them before surgery, and they are particularly popular among pediatricians.

The drugs’ use in agriculture has, according to many microbiologists, led to the development of bacteria that are resistant to their effects, a development that many doctors say has cost thousands of lives.

The F.D.A. has yet to make final a guideline proposed in 2010 that would edge the agency closer to banning uses of penicillin and tetracycline in feed and water for the sole purpose of promoting the growth of animals or preventing illness that results from unsanitary living conditions. This issue has generated intense controversy among farmers and ranchers who contend that public health officials have exaggerated the danger of agricultural uses of antibiotics to humans.

When asked about the penicillin guideline, Mr. Taylor of the F.D.A. said, “We’re hopeful that in the coming months, we’ll be able to carry forward on that work.”

These are great steps in the right direction, but we aren't there yet, we have a long way to go.


Read my previous post

Antibiotics in our meats

I often write about how important it is to know where your food comes from. I find it odd that people are extremely concerned about the label on their jeans and their over priced handbags, both costing hundreds of dollars, yet they will make valiant efforts to seek out the cheapest food possible.

What is that saying about how you feel about your body? You care more about what other people see than what you actually put into it for nutrition? 

I understand that some people may not be able to afford to eat organic all the time, it can be more expensive for many valid reasons; however, there are some things that you really cannot and should not take a chance on.

Factory produced meats, especially ground meats.

Yes, I will go out to a restaurant and eat ground beef on occasion, but not often. And I certainly do not go to fast food restaurants, that's just disaster on a plate. 

It's like Russian Roulette, only the end will be much, much more painful. Many people become ill and don't know what the reason is, could it be a 24 hour flu? More likely it was the home cooked meal they made themselves.

We all have a responsibility to speak with our actions, and that means our hard earned dollars. Spend your money on real food, not antibiotic and drug infused factory meats.

I have a couple exerpts from an article by Mark Bitmman, and a link to the entire article: 

Bacteria 1, F.D.A. 0

I urge you to read it and stay informed on the situation.

"So when you go to the supermarket to buy one of these brands of pre-ground meat products, there’s a roughly 25 percent chance you’ll consume a potentially fatal bacteria that doesn’t respond to commonly prescribed drugs."

"Plying “healthy” farm animals (the quotation marks because how healthy, after all, can battery chickens be?) with antibiotics — a practice the EU banned in 2006 — is as much a part of the American food system as childhood obesity and commodity corn. Animals move from farm to refrigerator case in record time; banning prophylactic drugs would slow this process down, and with it the meat industry’s rate of profit."