Update on the Politics of Antibiotics in Food

Why do I avoid eating beef, chicken, pork and dairy containing antibiotics?

From an article in The New York Times earlier this week:

About 100,000 people die every year from hospital-acquired infections caused by bacteria that, because of overuse of antibiotics, have developed resistance to the usual remedies and cannot be killed with them. Many others die from superbugs contracted outside hospitals.

How many deaths can be attributed to agricultural uses of antibiotics?

“I don’t think anyone knows that number,” said Dr. James Johnson, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, “but I think it’s substantial.

Click here to read the entire article, which explains the issue further.

Click here to read today's editorial in the Times about the subject.