foodconsumer.org

Which is worse? Germs in our Food or the Antibiotics that Kill Them?

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:51:00 +0000

By Martha Rosenberg (marthar@foodconsumer.org) Which is worse? Germs in our Food or the Antibiotics that Kill Them? If you want to lose weight the late comic

Lynn D

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:28:45 +0000

That is sickening. How can anyone be so cruel and uncaring to animals, who sustain our lives? I hope Hell is hot enough for these heartless barbarians.

Maddi

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:37:39 +0000

So if we limit the use of anitbiotics in the livestock, wouldn'they be proned to more diseases and get more contaminated? Where and how do we achieve the "happy medium"?

stephen

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:52:09 +0000

I work on a chicken ranch. We use no antibiotics. Our mortality is considerably higher than that of conventional farms. Daily I pick up hundreds of dead chickens that suffered slow painful deaths that antibiotics could have remedied.

It should be noted that livestock raisers are not stupid as city people assume. Antibiotics used for animals are not used for human use.

stephen

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:01:13 +0000

Chicken rancher here again: Sick and unhappy animals are not profitable. Poor sanitation and cutting costs on litter,costs more in high mortality. Such farmers that don't treat their animals right should not raise livestock but work for Obama's new heath care system.

Troyen

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:18:28 +0000

If the animals we eat are given antibiotics we are also taking in those antibiotics in the animal. Our immune system is heavily dependent on the health of our digestive system. Antibiotics destroy the good bacteria necessary for our digestive health. To illustrate... If someone stuck you in an elevator with 10 other people, and you were told you'd have to live, eat, sleep, and bathroom in there wouldn't you and every one in there become diseased too?

In addition to the antibiotic problem. Everyone should realize that eating any kind of animal products increases your chance of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes and many other degenerative conditions. If you just look back in time you will see that America was not eating the amount of animal products as we are today. In the early 1900s cancer was only 1 in 33, and we consumed a diet of potatoes, grains, fruits & vegetables. That's what sustained us, not animals. Today the complete opposite is true. We consume more meat & dairy. Today cancer is 2 out of 3. It was 1 in 3 a decade ago. We were a Healthier people then. So what do we really need now? More "Health" care, or just quit eating and living a destructive diet & lifestyle. Our bodies will thanks us... The animals and environment will thank us.

Dr. David A Barton

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:33:12 +0000

Thank you so much for the article. I will be posting it around my office this week. It is a shame more people are unaware of what our greed and poor management is doing to our planet. Imagine what is in our water supply. Every time we flush unused prescriptions down the toilet. I will try and put a link to your article on our website www.BartonChiro.com

Ava Odoemena

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:18:26 +0000

It's a good article, I enjoyed reading it, but it has one flaw: The focus is set entirely on the "evil industry", and yes, animal agriculture is morally vile to the bone, however why does it exist?

It exists for those who persist within the cruel delusion that animals are food. So deep is this belief, that suggesting otherwise will result in aggressive replies and weak justification attempts, for something which can not be justified anymore. And yes, I'm a vegan, of course, otherwise anything I stated here would be meaningless.

However, reality for the delusional, the body and secretion eaters, those who are THE CAUSE for animal agriculture, will provide a healing shock, perhaps, anytime soon.

Because ethics is really just an issue for us crazed fanatics it seems, given that 7 Billion people can not be sustained on the lump-and-gland-stuff-diet. It's physically not possible. See we don't even need ethics, we got a *physical* problem here. Animal agriculture is hugely inefficient as it wastes much more plant calories as if those plant calories would be consumed directly. 90% of the worlds soy production ends in the stomachs of those whose bodies and bodystuff ends in the lumpy-diet. And here is the clue: This gross inefficiency is maintained for a small tiny minority in "rich" countries. Of course, humans being as they are, the giant populations of Asia are getting wealthier and they too now want more than ever be part of the lumpy-diet club.

And that's where we run into trouble with the current system. It's physically not possible, as we don't have the literal space on this planet to provide the fields where the plants are grown that animals must eat.

This seems to come as a surprise to many. Yes, they are are alive, and they need to eat. Huge quantities!

A scientist recently has calculated that ever since humans existed since we split from the apes (well did we really?...), about 60 Billion of us have died. In all of our existence!

Compare that to the roughly 40 Billion mammals that are killed for human consumption every year. Every YEAR!

And they all need to eat, and all their food has to have a surface to grow on. And all this for a *minority* of humans.

Animal agriculture is insanity on many levels.

And to address one of the first comments which bemoans the cruelty in the animal industry.

Well stop eating animals and the products of their body and the cruelty along with the industry supplying it will go away. Like burning witches went away. People who burnt witches eventually found, hmmm, real jobs.

Mel

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:44:18 +0000

This article is rediculous. Full of misinformation, no facts, and complete bias. I ask you one simple question, have you made it through your life entirely healthy without having to EVER fill a perscription antibiotic??? Of course not!!! At some point in your lives, your immune system has been taken over by a microbial bug and you need the help of perscription antibiotics to rid yourself of the disease. How could we expect anything different from an animal?
Anibiotics are used in animals when they get sick....and with that regard, it keeps them healthy. It would be simply cruel to let an animal suffer to its death, rather than give it a course of antibiotics to heal it. There are VERY STRICT withdrawl times for food animals to enter the food chains. Treated animals have to wait weeks, months, and years for the antibiotics to clear their system before they can enter the food chain.
Farmers are not cruel people. Drive out of you little "city-life" world and go see a farm for yourself. Talk to the farmers and find out where your food comes from. Don't believe all these crazy PETA, HSUS, etc. people who have never actually been on farms. How would you like it if I came to your workplace and told you that you were doing your job wrong? I'll bet I could easily videotape your workplace, take things out of context, and make ANY working environment look bad if I wanted to.
As far as "real jobs"...it's the farmers that are some of the hardest working people in america. They are up at sunrise and go to bed long after the sun has gone down 7 days/week, 365 days/year. They don't get "paid vacation", "sick time", and holidays off. Pretty they have as real of a job as could ever be!
Look into the research, animals are highly efficient at taking the limited sources of nutrients that plants provide and turning them into useful nutrients for people to eat. The whole world would starve if we couldn't rely on animals....people have eaten animals since the beginning of time, we are omnivores!!! There is simply not enough nutrients(I'm not talking about calories here, there is a difference between plain old calories and the nutrients that we need to survive) in plants to sustain the world's population.
Your cancer stats are just bogus and meaningless. Should I blame the fire dept. for all the fires that occur? After all, everytime there is a fire, the fire department is there...so that means the fire department must be causing the fires, right? Ugh, uneducated people really annoy me. Don't sit on your butt and read the computer, get out and visit your local farms, then you'll see the truth about the hard work that farming entails and why certain animal husbandry practices are in place.
Finally, don't bite the hand that feeds you....you just may end up starving to death. After all, where would the city people be if the farmers didn't grow food for them? Pretty sure you wouldn't even know where to begin!

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Kyle J

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:57:54 +0000

While this all seems scary and unhealthy, I do question whether there is legitimate use of antibiotics and medicines for our livestock? I have pets and I know I give them medicine when they are sick. Wouldn't a farmer do the same? If they don't treat them, then they could spread their disease to other livestock killing them all or causing more health damage and a rise in <a href="http://www.uhc.com">health insurance</a> rates as a result of increased unhealthy meats.