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06-21-2016 03:52 PM - edited 06-21-2016 04:25 PM
I saw this on my Consumer Reports
email news letter and thought it might
be interesting to share. It's too long
to copy / paste here and too much
to summarize:
::
::
"An investigative article on the use of antibiotics in poultry farming"
"How Factory Farms Play Chicken With Antibiotics
And the inside story of one company confronting its role in
creating dangerous superbugs."
From the article:
"......Currently, livestock operations burn through about 70 percent of the "medically important" antibiotics used in the nation—the ones people need when an infection strikes.
Microbes that have evolved to withstand antibiotics now sicken 2 million Americans each year and kill 23,000 others—more than homicide.
Even though public health authorities from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long pointed to the meat industry's reliance on antibiotics as a major culprit in human resistance to the drugs, the FDA has never reined in their use......"
06-21-2016 04:33 PM
One of the reasons antibiotics are needed is because the birds are packed in the chicken houses like sardines.
Free range is healthier.
06-21-2016 04:35 PM
I only buy antibiotic free chicken. My butcher carries it
06-21-2016 04:38 PM
I have not eaten fowl/meat or fish since the mid 1970' s.
hckynut(john)
06-21-2016 04:51 PM - edited 06-21-2016 04:52 PM
This part surprised me:
".....And the worst part is that antibiotic use in factory farms isn't mostly a matter of keeping animals healthy.
In 1950, a pharmaceutical company called American Cyanamid—now part of Pfizer—wanted to see if giving chickens vitamin B-12 made them fatter, so it ran some experiments.
The idea seemed to work.
But the researchers soon discovered
it wasn't the vitamin that had fattened
the birds; it was traces of an antibiotic
called aureomycin.
(B-12 can be a byproduct of aureomycin production; the vitamin researchers used had come from making the antibiotic.)
This discovery revolutionized meat production.
Adding a dash of antibiotics to feed and water rations magically made birds, pigs, and cows grow plumper, saving on feed costs and slashing the time it took to get animals to slaughter.
In 1977, the General Accounting Office reported that "the use of antibiotics in animal feeds increased approximately sixfold" between 1960 and 1970. "Almost 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys, about 90 percent of the swine and veal calves, and about 60 percent of the cattle raised in the United States during 1970 received antibiotics in their feed......."
06-21-2016 04:59 PM
@newziesuzie, thanks so much for sharing this because it's so important.
Factory farming is essentially threatening the long term efficacy of essential antibiotics that are needed to quite literally save lives. -- It just amazes me that the FDA is playing so fast and loose with quite literally our health.
And yes, I realize that with all the Washington politics... that it's far more complicated than just placing the blame with the FDA... there are many players behind these decisions.
I started eating organic about ten years ago, and added "grass raised" animals to my requirements about seven years ago. -- Over the decades, I've sometimes gone the vegetarian route but eventually realized that my body did better with some meat in my diet. -- I purchase my meat locally from greenfarm markets.
-- bebe
06-21-2016 05:45 PM
Nothing new about that, they've been saying that for many years now and nothing has changed.
06-21-2016 05:48 PM
Hckynut, have you seen the documentary, Food Inc.? That did it for me and I will not ear those things u mentioned either.
06-21-2016 05:49 PM
I meant eat!
06-21-2016 05:51 PM - edited 06-21-2016 06:09 PM
@chrystaltree wrote:Nothing new about that, they've been saying that for many years now and nothing has changed.
If you read the article
youll see yes there are new things
being done which is why
I posted the article @chrystaltree.
😊
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