HUGE! Federal judge orders FDA to cut antibiotics from animal feed/Updated!

By  beach babe in fl for Meatless Advocates Meetup

Fri Mar 23, 2012

Wow!  The FDA has been taking too long to implement what it knows are best practices for a healthy food system so a federal judge has to make them own up to their responsibilities to maintain a food system that does not harm public health.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered U.S. regulators to start proceedings to withdraw approval for the use of common antibiotics in animal feed, citing concerns that overuse is endangering human health by creating antibiotic-resistant "superbugs".

Can you believe that we have known about the dangers of overuse of antibiotics in animal feed since the 70's but nothing has been done.  Shows the power and money of the corporate meat industry.

The FDA had started such proceedings in 1977, prompted by its concerns the widespread use in livestock feed of certain antibiotics - particularly tetracyclines and penicillin, the most common. But the proceedings were never completed and the approval remained in place. [...]"In the intervening years, the scientific evidence of the risks to human health from the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock has grown, and there is no evidence that the FDA has changed its position that such uses are not shown to be safe," .

Thanks for filing the lawsuit is due to environmental and public-health groups including The Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Union of Concerned Scientists in the Manhattan federal court in May.

The plaintiffs argued that using common antibiotics in livestock feed has contributed to the rapid growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in both animals and humans.

We know that the reason the meat industry uses antibiotics in animal feed is because their industrial meat operations are so damaging to animals health that they must be given prophylactic doses of antibiotics just to keep them alive.  Of course our immense market for meat has contributed to these unhealthy operations. 

The push back that we have made against CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) is showing promise.  This is a major blow to their continuance.  Huzzah!

Update with additional study:  This new action comes not a moment to soon as a new study out of Poland has found evidence of high levels of  antibiotic-proof pathogens in the natural environment(soil) as well. And yet again, animal antibiotics seem to be the culprit.  The pathogens seem to come from soil which has been treated with manure feed.
http://www.asm.org/...  (PDF)

Houston, we have a huge problem when antibiotic-resistant microbes show up in fruits and vegetables

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