A Report On The Food Industry

Imagine being sick with a bacteria that is immune to standard antibiotics. This will become a reality if antibiotics are not removed from animal feed. Today, many meat industries scattered across America are mixing large amounts of antibiotics in animal feed. The feed that is fed to animals have a purpose to help reduce various diseases or sickness in their bodies, and making the poultry bulkier and less natural (Front Line Modern Meat 1). If the animal is being fed the same kind of probiotic for a long period of time, the bacteria in their bodies will become resistant to the drug. Once people consume that same animal, their bodies will also be resistant to antibiotic help (Front Line Modern Meat 1). Due to the high risk of consuming poultry, the FDA should ban livestock industries for adding antibiotics into animal feed.

By weight, eighty percent of antibiotics are used in agriculture to “fatten animals” and “protect them from the conditions in which they are raised” (McKenna). Animals are given micro-doses of antibiotics, that is, a small amount of antibiotics to prevent diseases from occurring. This micro-dosage amount allows for mutation that Fleming described. The routine use of antibiotics in agriculture has led to “[sixty-five] percent of chicken breasts” and “[forty-four] percent of ground beef” to house bacteria “resistant to tetracycline”. Additionally, “[eleven] percent of pork chops carried bacteria resistant to five classes of drugs” (McKenna). These bacteria then spread from animals to the humans who eat them, causing humans to get infections which cannot be treated. The issue isn’t as simple as ceasing to give antibiotics to animals. Most animals raised for consumption live in an environment ripe for infections and diseases to spread. Instead of giving the animals more room to live, the majority of farmers opt to give the animals antibiotics. For cattle, This prevents diseases and death to the immature weaned calves and cattle which saves the rancher both time and money—passing on the savings to the consumers. In a free market society higher prices tend to not go well. However, if antibiotics became useless farmers would have to “[enlarge] barns, [cut] down on crowding, and [delay] weaning”, which ultimately would increase the costs of raising livestock

The main threat for the overuse of antibiotics are the creation of antibiotic resistant microbes, or more commonly called superbugs. Antibiotics are used to kill mass amounts of bacteria, but they cannot kill all of them. Some bacteria still survive, so they will reproduce and pass their genes down to their offspring. The offspring will now have their parents genes, which includes being resistant to a certain type of antibiotic. Tom Philpott, an award winning writer about food politics, explained, “And the worst part is that antibiotics use in factory farms is not mostly matter of keeping animals healthy.” Philpott is saying farmers mostly use antibiotics to promote faster growth and not to treat sickness. American Cyanamid, a pharmaceutical company, tested animals with vitamin B12 to see if they grew faster. The animals saw significant weight gain, and more experiments were tested. What American Cyanamid found was the antibiotic in vitamin B12 was actually causing the weight gain. This discovery led to mass amounts of antibiotics being used in animals. In 1950, before the discovery, there were 1.6 million chicken farms raising a total of about 560 million chickens. 28 years later, 3 billion chickens were being hatched in about 31,000 large farms (Philpott). The discovery led to mass expansion of farms, because animals were able to grow faster and bigger, so farms took advantage. Factory farms have been overusing

Antibiotic use in animals has recently captured the attention of various professionals as the blatant, adverse effects have become increasingly prevalent. Agricultural manufacturers carelessly inject livestock with antibiotics in order to maximize their weight gain by minimizing the amount of energy consumed in fighting illnesses. This broad use of antibiotics in food-producing animals has contributed to the emergence and distribution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in either mild or fatal illnesses. To put the severity of this issue in perspective, legislators must realize that 1 in 5 antibiotic-resistant infections are caused by bacteria from food and animals. Although antibiotic use in animals is not the sole culprit of the

This is due in part by the previous statement to get higher yields out every animal raised. Cattle, chickens and pigs alike are all subject to certain fattening diets, modern breeding techniques and growth hormone treatments. These forced practices have very adverse, life altering and threatening affects that lead farmers to use antibiotics in order to keep diseases at bay. The Committee on Drug Use in Food Animals states, “doses are used when pathogens are known to be present in the environment or when animals encounter a high stress situation and are more susceptible to pathogens “, (1999, p. 28). It is important to point out that the use of growth hormones and antibiotics dramatically increases body mass, drastically shortens the lifespan of animals such as cattle and is being detected in food for human consumption.

In 2011, the United States sold 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics for meat and poultry production use. but only 7.7 million pounds for human use. Antibiotics are used in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to kill bacteria that lives among the animals to keep them healthy until slaughter. They come with many side effects which end up harming the consumer, the animal's life becomes shortened because of the antibiotics speeding up the growth and the long term effects on the earth could end up costing us lots of money. Even though antibiotics keep the animal healthy, the usage in livestock should be banned because it causes a health threat to the consumer and creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

To understand the functions of antibiotic and antimicrobial use in the food industry one must consider how antibiotics became incorporated in the industry over the past few decades. Antibiotic use erupted during WWII where they were developed at a large scale to control human infections. This mixed in with the high demand for food during the war lead to antibiotics becoming economically advantages for use on farm animals. During the 1940s research labs conducted experiments to examine the effects of antibiotics administered to food animals. These experiment lead to findings of antibiotics being used to treat diseases in animals. Due to the high demand of food for the war antibiotics were used as nutrition for animals to supplement the plant-based

For many years factory farms have been using antibiotics to promote faster growth and prevent disease that could sicken livestock held in confinements (Dillon). Even though they are putting antibiotics into the livestock when they are healthy they, instead of getting sick from it, actually grow faster letting the farmer produce more livestock in the same amount of time then they could without giving them antibiotics thus making the meat for the consumer cheaper with the same qualities as before.

The misuse of penicillin and other antibiotics however is causing the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in which seemingly harmless infections turn to be deadly and dangerous. Antibiotics are not only casually used as treatments for bacterial infections, but are also used in agriculture and veterinary medicine, creating controversy on the proper uses of antibiotics. As advancements in the medical fields proved to be beneficial for a short period of time, today the misuse of these innovations are creating more and more problems that have proven to be dangerous to the accustomed health of the global population. Antibiotics were not always considered to be a superficial medication and, in fact, have been naturally used for millions of years, like with ants and their symbiosis with antibiotic producing fungi. Humans do not fully realize the value that antibiotics have brought to the population and do not take measures to preserve their use. In contrast, humans take for advantage the natural benefits that is given to them to overly benefit themselves, such as while creating revenue through mass production despite warning from scientists. This selfish misuse leads to consequences in which the future will have to provide solutions for, and perhaps even follow in the ants’ footsteps.

I recently watched the documentary called Food Inc. in which it unveiled the unsanitary conditions of livestock farming. Some livestock farmers use antibiotic-treated feed for their animals because they become very ill. The reason for heavy use of antibiotics is that the lack of sanitation in the tunnel ventilated houses create infections in the animals. (Robert Kenner, 2009) In some cases, antibiotics are administered without the consultation of an accredited veterinarian and for no reason. There has been an increasing fear in the public that antibiotics used in the meat and poultry may have some unexpected negative effects after years of consumption. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) have published articles that report on the effects of medicated feed that may create antibiotic resistance in humans. The CDC reports that 3,800 cases of drug-resistant Salmonella Typhi infections occur per year in the United States (CDC, 2013.) Salmonella is a foodborne illness which is also contagious amongst food animals. In recent news, the World Health Organization (2015) has labeled red meat a carcinogen. This recent information fuels the public’s fear that there may be a link to human antibiotic resistance and the overuse of antibiotics in food animals . This type of news has made antibiotics in livestock feed an urgent public health issue. In order to prevent antibiotic resistance and deter this problem the proposed bill known as Senate Bill 770 (SB. 770)

The food that you are eating maybe is "fake" food. The food industry owns to its consumers a clear nutritional label that is easy to understand especially if the food is genetically modified. GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) have been around in the markets for the last 20 years GM crops can be engineered to be naturally pest-resistant, undermining the need for pesticide chemicals. GM crops can be engineered to tolerate extreme weather conditions, such as cold fronts or droughts, allowing for a geographically diverse range of growth sites. GM crops can be engineered with added vitamins and minerals, which is especially beneficial in third world countries dealing with malnutrition "( Rachel). However, the topic of the food that us Americans eat has many aspects and points of view the following are just some of those aspects.

Have you ever wondered what goes into the beef we eat? Our beef is given antibiotics in their feed and water to help them grow bigger faster. The antibiotics in our cows can potentially cause us to get a food-borne illness from the beef we eat in any form. There are many issues dealing with the topic, should we or should we not have antibiotics administered to our beef. Many people think it is a good idea to have antibiotics in our beef to help the beef industry and help us not get sick from eating beef. I think we should not give our beef antibiotics for a very good reason. The reason is cows are given antibiotics unnecessary to their health. There have been many disagreements among different government, federal, national medicine,

They limit the uses of antibiotics in the animals. For decades, livestock factories have use antibiotics for promoting the growth of the animals but also to prevent future illness within the animals and to help to ones who are sick “Showdown Looms Over Antibiotics.” The numbers of the sick animals are low “factoy farm map.” They limit

Avant, S. (2012). Strategies that work: Alternatives to antibiotics in animal health. Agricultural Research, 60(5), 4-7. Retrieved from https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/ar/archive/2012/may/animal0512.pdf

Throughout the years, there has been an incredible amount of speculation as to what ingredients are being put into the food we consume. The same food manufactured by major food corporations that can only be approved by the FDA. There are many techniques that these food corporations can use in order to gain consumer loyalty, but the main focus is the way their advertising works. Along with these advertisements, comes a target market as well. The food industry is constantly in speculation because there are always new foods that corporations want approved to sell. Some of these businesses are part of the fast food industry and others are international food companies that sell their products around the world. As adults and parents, we need to