20 Jun 2003
Would you like some penicillin with that Big Mac?

McDonald's Asks Meat Industry to Cut Use of Antibiotics. McDonald's is asking its meat suppliers to reduce their dependence on antibiotics in response to public health concerns. By David Barboza with Sherri Day. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

I hate linking the Time, just because you'll have to pony up to read the full text in a week or so, but this was too good to pass up. Most Americans have no idea how much antibiotic is fed to cattle on a regular basis. Or why. When I discovered what modern practices were, I was appalled.

Why are we doing this? To increase production? If so, it hasn't worked. You can see for youself that cattle inventory in the US decreased by almost 10%, on average from 1970 to 1999.

Would you consider it healthy, in any sense of the word, to put your kids on a regular regimen of powerful antibiotics, even when they weren't ill? Of course not, if for no other reason than the cost! So why do we continue to do what we know to be

  • unhealthy
  • expensive
  • dangerous

I say dangerous due to the rapid growth and spreading distribution of antibiotic resistant germs. Nature has a way of avoiding obstacles, and in the case of virii and bacteria, when faced with massive does of continual poison, the choice is simply to evolve or die. And evolve they have ....

If we don't start raising the animals right, and nip this whole problem in the bud, we will be faced with a crisis of major proportions in a few years time.

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link