Say It Ain't So Already

Another Reason Why I Might Not Vote for Barack Obama

December 28, 2011 at 11:55 AM Leave a comment

Salmonella Bacteria -- Photo: Janice Haney Carr / CDC

Earlier this month, the Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford issued a ground beef recall after at least 14 people were infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella. Chances are this is the first you’ve heard of it. After all, it’s not much compared to the 76 illnesses and one death back in August that led Cargill to recall almost 36 million pounds of ground turkey products potentially contaminated with drug-resistant salmonella. The particulars get confusing, but the trend is unmistakable: our meat supply is frequently contaminated with bacteria that can’t readily be treated by antibiotics.

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It’s not like this is happening without a reason; the little germs have plenty of practice fighting the drugs designed to kill them in the industrially raised animals to which antibiotics are routinely fed. And although it’s economical for producers to drug animals prophylactically[1], there are many strong arguments against the use of those drugs, including their declining efficacy in humans.

Probably you’d agree with the couple of people I described this situation to earlier this week, one of whom said something like, “Ugh, that’s crazy,” and the other simply, “They gotta do something about that!”

The thing is, “they” did. In 1977.

That’s when the Food and Drug Administration, aware of the health risks of administering antibiotics to healthy farm animals, proposed to withdraw its prior approval of putting penicillin and tetracycline in animal feed. Per their procedure, the F.D.A. then issued two “notices of opportunity for a hearing,” which were put on hold by Congress until further research could be conducted. On hold is exactly where the F.D.A.’s requests have been since your dad had sideburns.

Until last week, when the agency decided to withdraw them.

That would be the change-we-can-believe-in Obama administration’s FDA, bowing to corporate pressure.  It’s disgusting.

Read more gory details here.  I’m a meat eater but what’s going on behind the scenes in the American meat industry is horrifying.  It’s enough to make me think about becoming a vegetarian.

Entry filed under: 2012 Election, Democrats, Including Blue Dogs & "Liberals", Food, Health - Physical and Psychological, Obama -- Don't Count on My Vote, President Barack H. Obama and Co.. Tags: meat supply, salmonella bacteria.