5 ms·
>These bacteria are finding ways to get around antibiotics in animals >"We've actually run out of antibiotics that really keep animals healthy," Price said. "W
by awolf 13y ago
>These bacteria are finding ways to get around antibiotics in animals
>"We've actually run out of antibiotics that really keep animals healthy," Price said. "We're finding strains of bacteria in animals that are resistant to so many antibiotics."
How about this novel solution: stop raising animals in a way that requires them to guzzle down tons of antibiotics in order to survive.
I love how this article fails to even mention the possibility that livestock animals do not need to ALWAYS BE SICK. Preposterous.
- mschuster91 13y agoThe problem with capitalism is that pure capitalism does not account for social issues, be them human-related or animal-related. Neither does communism. But people still believe that raw capitalism (or, in cases like North Korea, communism) can succeed.
- awolf 13y agoAwareness seems to be spreading about the negative health implications of our factory-food system as a whole. It's possible that demand will shift. Capitalism will adapt.
- mschuster91 13y agoI do not believe that the demand will shift, simply as the amount of people depending on cheap food is too high. As better living conditions for the animals result in lower profits, these products simply will not be bought as no one can afford them.
- dmm 13y agoAgriculture in the US is absolutely nothing like "raw capitalism". It is extremely regulated. Farmers are subsidized. It's nothing like "raw capitalism" in several very important ways.
- rdouble 13y agoCash crops, sugar, meat and milk production are extremely regulated and subsidized. However, the production of many agricultural products like fruits, vegetables and nuts is pretty close to "raw capitalism."
- HarryHirsch 13y agoYou mean, were the US to implement "raw capitalism", whatever that is, the externalities from antibiotic overuse are going to be priced in correctly? What mechanism do you suggest?
- mschuster91 13y agoIf it were "extremely regulated", then there would not be regular news reports about contaminated meat scandals and stuff like "The Meatrix" would not exist. Simply put, if there are regulations, then they're either just pro forma or not enforced enough.
- monkeyspaw 13y agoThere are thousands of pages of regulations on federal meat standards. I think your statement would work better if you said, "If it were 'well regulated/sensibly regulated'..." It's also possible that regulations are confusing, unenforceable, out of date, or addressing symptoms instead of causes. I don't disagree with you, but I think your comment needed some clarification.
- mschuster91 13y agoI would rather say that "Big Money" is preventing existing regulations from being enforced. The biggest issue is, of course, the sequester and the general lack of funding for food inspection - if there were enough food and animal safety inspectors, food scandals would simply not exist because of inspection pressure. The second issue, tightly connected with the funding issue, is lobbyism. The "food lobby" has only recently lobbied for making recording of animal rights violation a crime...
- InclinedPlane 13y agoIt's slightly more complicated than that. You see, farmers have discovered that if you feed certain animals antibiotics even when they aren't sick typically the animals will grow faster and bigger. This is great for farmers because more pounds of meat means more cash. But there are some significant negative externalities to operating what is effectively a ginormous petri dish veritably designed to encourage the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
- Game_Ender 13y agoLast year the FDA finally made antibiotics in live stock require a prescription [1]. So now you need a complicit vet before you can continuously dose your farm animals with antibiotics. [1] - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/us/antibiotics-for-livestock-will-require-prescription-fda-says.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/us/antibiotics-for-livesto...
- rsheridan6 13y agoI doubt that will be much of a problem. There are a lot of vets out there with huge student loans and dire employment prospects. You could probably find one to write whatever you wanted.