Antibiotic in Organic Pears and Apples? No, Says Organic Board

The decision is a victory for the organic standard and advances efforts to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics.

Fifth-Generation Farmer Shares His Success Raising Pigs Sustainably and Antibiotic-Free

Today, through our cooperative effort with brands Heritage Foods and Fork in the Road, we have built a profitable vertically coordinated production, marketing and distribution system. It truly is an equitable food system because everyone in our value chain can make a fair profit, from our customer partners to our farm families.

Chef Tom Colicchio Shines Spotlight on Antibiotic Use in U.S. Meat Industry

Mr. President: Pardon the Turkey, Not Factory Farming

FDA issued new rules in April that allow factory farms to continue overusing antibiotics, making compliance totally voluntary.

The FDA is accepting comments on the new rule until Thursday, July 12. We need to push…

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“It’s a powerful statement for a federal judge to tell a federal agency that it has been ‘arbitrary and capricious’ in denying regulatory petitions from consumer groups. We hope that this decision, combined with Judge Katz’s earlier decision, will speed an end to the inappropriate use of medically important antibiotics in animal agriculture.”

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The U.S. is leading the world in the overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming—and by a long way. We use more antibiotics per kilogram of meat produced than any other nation in the world—and we use 12 times as much as the country using the least, Norway.

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Antibiotics, a class of drugs used to treat bacterial infections, are becoming less and less effective in human medicine because of the emergence of resistant bacteria. An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are for livestock, not humans.

Factory farms, or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), use antibiotics to help animals increase weight quickly and to keep them alive in crowded, stressful, unsanitary conditions.

When bacteria are routinely exposed to antibiotics, they become resistant and harder to treat. As a result, drug choices for treatment of common infections are diminishing and becoming more expensive. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 38 Americans die each day from hospital-acquired antibiotic-resistant infections.

This month, the Keep Antibiotics Working Coalition, along with Pew Charitable Trusts and the American Academy of Pediatrics, launched a “We the People” petition to voice concern to the White House that there is widespread overuse of antibiotics in industrial animal farming. The campaign is collecting signatures to compel members of the White House to address this critical issue. After the petition gets 25,000 signatures by March 16, the White House will be obligated to review the petition and issue a response to the public.

To learn more and sign the petition, click here.