You know you’ve got to worry (or, at least, you should be) when scientists get anxious about something. Here’s the prestigious Scientific American magazine in an editorial expressing alarm about feeding low-dose antibiotics to pigs in factory farms.
For more than 50 years microbiologists have warned against using antibiotics to fatten up farm animals. The practice, they argue, threatens human health by turning farms into breeding grounds of drug-resistant bacteria. Farmers responded that restricting antibiotics in livestock would devastate the industry and significantly raise costs to consumers. We now have empirical data that should resolve this debate. Since 1995 Denmark has enforced progressively tighter rules on the use of antibiotics in the raising of pigs, poultry and other livestock. In the process, it has shown that it is possible to protect human health without hurting farmers.
Here’s the link to check out that smart CBS graphic.
You want drugs with that?
