With most samples of several common store-bought meats
testing positive for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," factory
farming practices must change.
Planning a Memorial
Day barbecue? When you buy meat for that festive meal, watch out for some
uninvited guests. An alarming amount of American meat harbors not just
pathogens, but “superbugs” — antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
For now, you’d better
cook your meat well enough to kill the germs (165 F is the magic temperature),
but there might be hope for safer alternatives in the future. Consumer advocates and lawmakers are trying to push changes that make these superbugs a
thing of the past. That’s never been so important because industrialized
agriculture delivers efficiency, productivity, and profit at the expense of
food safety.
Our modern-day factory farm system has for too long served up meat that too frequently comes with a side of with pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli. Packing animals into cages and pens and feeding them the cheapest possible diets results in fast growth and tidy profits. But it also sets up sanitary conditions worse than a medieval city. With so many immune-depressed animals packed tightly together (along with their waste), these “farms” are a boon for bacteria.
That’s bad enough
because food poisoning can kill you. But the news is even worse because many of
the pathogens found in meat aren’t just bugs — they’re superbugs. If they
infect you, antibiotics won’t help.
This isn’t an abstract
public-health risk. You know how your doctor warns you to take that entire
course of prescribed antibiotics even if your symptoms go away? That standard
precaution helps ensure that the bacteria making you ill can’t evolve
resistance to your antibiotics. The goal is to slam them with such a heavy dose
for such a sustained period of time that even the strongest bacteria die off.
But why are we so careful about antibiotic use in humans while our agricultural
system is practically designed to create superbugs?
Today, a full 80
percent of the antibiotics consumed in this country are given to the animals we
eat — even when they aren’t sick. Why? Profits.
In theory, constant
low doses of antibiotics help prevent illnesses in livestock. But the
antibiotics serve another purpose too: They make cattle, chickens, pigs, and
other farm animals grow faster. This arrangement yields a bounty of superbugs
because the bacteria that are most susceptible to the antibiotics die while the
resistant ones survive and pass on their genes.
If harmful bacteria
evolve resistance to the antibiotics we rely on to kill them, we’ll be up a
creek without a paddle. Getting food poisoning is lousy enough, but imagine if
the antibiotics your doctor prescribes don’t work.
In April, the
Environmental Working Group drew attention to the previously under-reported
findings of federal-government researchers who found that most samples of several
common store-bought meats tested contained superbugs. They detected
antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 81 percent of the ground turkey, 69 percent of
the pork chops, 55 percent of the ground beef, and 39 percent of the chicken
parts sold at our
supermarkets.
Those numbers are no
fluke. Consumers’
Union recently tested
ground turkey too. Its researches found harmful bacteria in 90 percent of
samples. And most of these pathogens were resistant to one or more antibiotics.
Even organic ground turkey had alarming bacteria levels, although it was less
likely to contain superbugs.
Scientists first found
that feeding animals antibiotics when they aren’t sick generates
superbugs four decades ago, but we still haven’t changed how we produce
meat.
As bad as that is, do
you know what’s even scarier? The industry’s weak standards. Under our current
regulations, a turkey plant passes safety inspections if less than half of the
ground turkey samples tested are contaminated with salmonella.
What’s the fix? Rep.
Louise Slaughter, the sole microbiologist in Congress, has been trying since 2007 to ban the use of antibiotics that are
important in human medicine for healthy farm animals. The New York Democrat’s
legislation wouldn’t solve every problem with our factory farms. But at least
it would do something to fight the spread of superbugs.
That’s good, but it’s
a band-aid. The real answer lies in an end to the kind of farming that kills
livestock and poultry before they head to the slaughterhouse.
OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author
of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do
to Fix It. OtherWords.org
