Growers and Grocers

What the heck?  MRSA?  People actually are starting to become familiar with the acronym for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an isolate of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus characterized by antibiotic resistance to all penicillin.  MRSA was discovered for the first time in 1961 in the UK, but it is now widespread in the hospital setting. MRSA is commonly termed a superbug.

Although MRSA has traditionally been seen as a hospital-associated infection, community-acquired MRSA strains have appeared in recent years everywhere from schools to daycare to work environments.
What the media wants you to believe is that the over prescribing of antibiotics to worried mothers with screaming children is to blame - LIE #1.  They would also like you to believe that they can develop stronger and better drugs quickly that will save us all.  LIE #2.  What agribusiness wants you to believe is that agribusiness has nothing do to with the problem.  LIE #3.  To me, it’s the proof of the truth, not stated lies that influence my decisions. Junk science? Forget it.  Magnets and Noni Juice?  Not convinced.

The fact that 75% of antibiotics are used on agribusiness?  Hmmm.  If we’re eating more than we’re prescribing, what’s to be done when our bodies develop an infection?  The key word is RESISTANT in MRSA.  Just like our bodies become immune to other toxins and substances, we are starting to become immune to antibiotics.  Is it because mom is worried about an ear infection?  No way.  It’s because we’re eating tons of them in the form of feed lot cattle, meat and milk.

In late 2000, the FDA recommended banning a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones in livestock. This class of drugs includes Cipro, used to treat gonorrhea and anthrax. The decision was based in part on a study that examined people who were sick because of a bacterium called campylobacter, which can build up after poultry is treated with other antibiotics for E. coli — another bacterium that can cause human illness. The research determined to a 90% confidence rate that human resistance to fluoroquinolones was increased when chickens treated with the antibiotics had been ingested.

According to the FDA, campylobacter is the most commonly diagnosed bacterial cause of food-borne illness in the USA. The agency estimates that campylobacter annually causes:
• 2.4 million infections
• More than 150,000 physician visits
• 13,000 hospitalizations
• 100 deaths annually

According to an article in USA Today, “People who consume chicken or turkey contaminated with fluoroquinolone-resistant campylobacter are at risk of becoming infected with bacteria that current drugs can’t easily kill.”

The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also have advocated banning fluoroquinolones.  “The massive amount of antibiotics used in agriculture around the world is primarily utilized to treat animals that are not sick,” says Dr. Tamar Barlam, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Project at the Center for Science and the Public Interest.

Giant meat businesses believe that the antibiotics profitably lower the food-to-animal weight ratio by eliminating the action of various bacteria in the gut.  “Basically, if the animal can put all its energy into digesting food and absorbing it, they can get fatter,” says Barlam. “But the data to support that is not very current, and we’re talking about increases of 4-5%.”  “The byproduct of this use of antibiotics is the same or very similar to the antibiotics we use in humans is that we create a human health problem in sections linked most directly to food,” says Barlam.

The dosages and amounts that may foster resistance to harmful meat-borne bacteria like salmonella vary, says the UCS. “Low dosages of antibiotics given over a long period of time are precisely what you would use if you wanted to intentionally develop resistant strains,” says Khoo. “Antibiotics are used in ill animals or humans at high doses over a short period of time exactly the opposite.”"The concern is that these resistant germs select out in the animals and create infections in us,” says Barlam. “The result is fewer treatment options and worse disease than otherwise. We don’t have that many new antibiotics coming down the pike, so we have to treat this as a serious problem at every step. That includes human use, but also not wasting these antibiotics in animals either.” 

Organic grass-fed meat or healthcare dollars, which is more expensive?

I know who’s lying.