Is “cutting-edge” biotechnology taking American agriculture backwards into a more toxic past?
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Last week House Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce committee, announced plans to introduce a new animal antibiotic use legislation. 
The FDA took long-overdue steps towards curbing the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals aimed to preserve effectiveness of antibiotics. Unfortunately, the measures remain voluntary and industry compliance remains to be seen. 
Nearly 35 years ago, the Food and Drug Administration initiated proceedings to withdraw the approval of the subtherapeutic use of certain antibiotics in agricultural animals but it took a Court Order to force the agency to follow through. 
Pharma wastes are identified by the EPA “contaminants of emerging concern,” and have been linked to multiple health and developmental problems in aquatic animals. Because of the potency of the drugs and their prevalence in our waterways many believe that their presence may also affect human health and addressing this illegal water pollution needs to be a high priority in our governments. 
Industry bias, lax scientific standards, exemption of food crops containing pesticides from registration requirements, and failure to independently monitor GM crops after approval, are among the regulatory problems exhibited by the EPA when it comes to regulating GMOs. Taking a step in the right direction, the Obama Administration announced on July 14, 2009, that it will seek to ban the routine use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals. With the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as new strains of staph and strep, and waves of swine flue and the bird flue in recent history, it would seem illogical and dangerous to society as a whole for continuing the practice of feeding healthy farm animals antibiotics simply to encourage rapid growth. |
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