December 21, 2011
It s been a fall of mixed news on antibiotic use in the agricultural industry in the United States. Advocates of restricting the practice balked at the FDA’s rejection, in November, of two citizen petitions enlisting the agency’s help in banning certain uses of antibiotics for livestock due to concerns about emerging antibiotic resistance. But some consumers may be heading in the antibiotic-free direction regardless: earlier this fall, Chicago public schools announced they would be serving chicken raised without antibiotics in 473 schools across the region.
Last Tuesday, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, with Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, hosted a briefing to address the issue from the perspective of farmers and restaurateurs who have already made the leap to antibiotic-free livestock production, including representatives from Applegate Farms, Niman Ranch, the Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative, and the popular restaurant chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill.
In the U.S., antibiotics in agriculture is big industry. According to sales data, approximately 80% of all antibiotics in the U.S. are used in agriculture, rather than for human consumption. For the farmers on the panel, they recalled encountering antibiotic-heavy farming practices early in their careers. In some cases, as Russ Kremer of the Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative pointed out, allied industry were the only people providing educational resources, and they offered alluring arguments for feeding antibiotics to animals: the ability to raise more animals in tightly packed spaces and promote faster animal growth promised higher returns.
According to Jeff Swain of Niman Ranch, factory farming in the U.S. has evolved systems that induce animal stress, with overcrowded conditions leading to disease problems. In addition, livestock have been genetically selected for faster growth rates, and the rise of megafarms has necessitated oversight by managers with little or no training in livestock production or animal health. The implication, according to Swain, is that cutting antibiotic use, including for growth promotion purposes, requires the entire farming system to undergo a substantial overhaul to support healthier animals. Changes like providing livestock with more space and time to grow would increase production costs, resulting in higher food prices.
Still, the panel was hopeful about the expansion of the antibiotic-free meat industry. There are signs that demand may already outpace production: Steve Ells, Chairman and CEO of Chipotle, noted that there simply isn t enough production of antibiotic-free meat right now to fully supply his restaurant chain, and David Wallinga writes in the Huffington Post that Applegate Farms sources some of its products from outside of the U.S. to accommodate customer demand. Meat also has yet to catch up with produce in terms of the market share occupied by organic products. A 2009 USDA bulletin noted that despite low total sales, the [organic meat] sector is currently one of the fastest growing in the organic industry, with total retail sales having increased by a factor of 46 between 1997 and 2007. Finally, Representative Slaughter, a sponsor of the Preserving Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), opened the briefing with the question of whether more stringent regulations on antibiotics in the EU could lead to trade issues for U.S. meat producers, necessitating a shift in thinking on antibiotic regulation.
As the issue progresses, CDDEP and our U.S.-based project on policy solutions for antibiotic resistance, Extending the Cure, are curious about the policy levers influencing antibiotic use in agriculture. The USDA, FDA, and CDC have all acknowledged the potential deleterious effects of using medically relevant antibiotics as growth promoters in the livestock industry, yet the concern has yet to produce regulatory movement. Clouding the conversation is the paucity of specific data about how antibiotics are used across the industry, or even a breakdown from the FDA of total antibiotic sales by animal species and on a subnational level. This is the kind of data that could allow us to better visualize the overall pattern of antibiotic use in the U.S., and analyze this pattern alongside trends in antibiotic resistance.
In the meantime, here are some more resources we’ve found helpful:
The 2010 summary report from the FDA: Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing Animals
A widely cited 2001 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimating antibiotic use in U.S. agriculture: Hogging It!: Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock
An infographic comparing estimates of antibiotic use in the U.S., across sectors
A 2005 report from the Environmental Defense Fund using UCS figures and Census of Agriculture data to estimate subnational use of antibiotics in agriculture: Resistant Bugs and Antibiotic Drugs: State and County Estimates of Antibiotics in Agricultural Feed and Animal Waste
Image credit: Flickr: Farm Sanctuary
