More than half of all
antibiotics sold and used in the United States do not go
to treating people. Instead, they go to animal
agriculture — where overuse of these drugs is
now contributing to a huge upsurge in
antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Factory farmers
regularly dole out antibiotics in livestock's water and
food supplies, as part of a general mission to prevent
infections and death among their pig, foul, cow, and
other animal populations. Preventing infections is a
huge concern, because factory farmers lock these
animals in filthy, feces-covered, overcrowded conditions
where diseases can easily run rampant. While
corporate farmers could solve this problem by improving
facility conditions, they'd rather continue to pack
animals as tight as possible to keep profits high.
So instead they pump
the animals full of antibiotics. This has already had
disastrous consequences for human
health.
The more
our bodies and bacteria get used to the presence of
antibiotics, the more those bacteria evolve and
mutate to fight off our antibiotic medical
treatments. And that means we have fewer
and fewer ways to protect ourselves when we get
sick. As a result, the number and intensity
of superbugs in humans is exploding. MRSA, CRE,
candida auris, strep, and others are plaguing more and
more people — even young, healthy patients. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, this superbug explosion has become
even more dire. And these patients
aren't just becoming incredibly sick. Many of them are
dying as these overused medicines become less and less
effective.
The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tried to help
reduce antibiotic use in agriculture, but with limited
success. That's partially because it hasn't set
many hard, enforceable rules. Recently, it
began requiring farmers to work with veterinarians to
administer certain antibiotics that it deems "medically
important" for human use. But as long as a vet is
willing to sign off on the treatment, there's not much
enforcement in place to stop misuse. Other,
over-the-counter antibiotics don't even require this
cursory veterinary involvement — even though they can
also contribute to superbug development! Animal
agriculture is already killing captive, defenseless
creatures. It's killing the planet with horrendous
greenhouse gas contributions. And now it's killing
humans, too, through incessant antibiotic use.
The U.S. government must
finally regulate the use of antibiotics in livestock,
and stop our worsening superbug crisis. Sign the
petition to protect our
health!
