Skip to main content

Food!

From Superbugs to Sustainability: a Fifth-Generation Producer's Mission to Raise Pigs without Antibiotics

April 12, 2013
I have a passion for pigs. It started back when I was five years-old, as I cared for the runt and orphaned pigs on our 220-acre family farm in Osage County, Missouri. From the son of five generations of farmers to a student of animal husbandry, to the owner of my own farm, I've always had pigs on...
Russ Kremer's picture

‘We Have a Limited Window of Opportunity’: CDC Warns of Resistance ‘Nightmare’

April 12, 2013
It’s not often that you get to hear a top federal health official deliberately deploy a headline-grabbing word such as “nightmare,” or warn: “We have a very serious problem, and we need to sound an alarm.” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said both...
Maryn McKenna's picture

Antibiotic Resistance Due to Overuse of Antibiotics in Agriculture

April 12, 2013
Overuse of antibiotics in agriculture has led to many antibiotic-resistant diseases in humans. Animals aree often given antibiotics in low doses to prevent disease, (often caused by unsanitary and crowded conditions), and to aid in growth. Animals that are fed antibiotics grow faster, experiencing...

Top 3 Ways to Avoid Overuse of Antibiotics

April 12, 2013
I am writing this blog on behalf on an important group, Supermoms Against Superbugs , as they approach their Superbugs Advocacy Day – April 16 – to bring awareness to the overuse of antibiotics. Below is a quote from them… “Doctors routinely warn patients that antibiotics should be used only to...
Heather Manley's picture

The Facts Are Clear: Animals and Superbugs

April 12, 2013
As a young student studying microbiology at the University of Kentucky, I immersed myself in the study of antibiotic-resistance. When I wrote my Master’s thesis in 1954, I wrote at length about a danger that continues to be a growing threat today: antibiotics becoming ineffective against the...
Louise Slaughter's picture

Is This the End of Antibiotics?

April 12, 2013
One of the medications dispensed at the pharmacy, are antibiotics, whose invention is attributed to Fleming, but was really the discoverer? According to the Spanish Royal Academy an antibiotic is a chemical substance produced by a living or manufactured synthetically, could paralyze development of...
Laura Termini's picture

¿Es este el fin de los Antibióticos?

April 12, 2013
Los antibióticos son sustancias que fabrican los microbios y producen la muerte de otros organismos (su nombre deriva del griego y significa “contra la vida”). En 1875 , el naturalista irlandés John Tyndall (imagen) descubrió el primer antibiotico, producido por el hongo Penicillium. El...
Laura Termini's picture

Why Trader Joe’s? Why now?

April 12, 2013
Consumers Union has taken a stand against the overuse of antibiotics in livestock production for decades – about 40 years, in fact. In that time however, we’ve seen little action by regulatory agencies or lawmakers to curb this practice that is increasingly contributing to the problem of antibiotic...
Meagan Bohne's picture

Finding Antibiotic-Free Meat in Chicago (Without Going Organic)

April 12, 2013
I’ve been passionate about the Supermoms Against Superbugs issue for almost a year now. The one small step I can take at home, of course, is to change the meat I buy and always look for antibiotic-free options. But at first this can be daunting. To the novice (that’s me) the search for non-...
Alison Klinger's picture

Its Master’s Voice: The FDA’s Dependence on Drug Industry Fees

April 12, 2013
I’ve spent many years wondering why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been so slow to curb the rampant overuse of antibiotics in agriculture. Original Nipper, by Francis Barraud (1856–1924) (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons For a public health agency,...
Margaret Mellon's picture

Pages