http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc...785&cn=139
EXCERPT: [...] For the many ways in which intensive animal agriculture pollutes and degrades the environment, you can look at Lisa Kemmerer's "Eating Earth". And if you're curious about how it uses and abuses workers, you can read Timothy Pachirat's "Every Twelve Seconds". But until now, there hasn't been a volume dedicated to detailing the public health crisis for which intensive animal agriculture is responsible. Ellen Silbergeld's "Chickenizing Farms & Food" fills this important gap.
Here, in short, is the problem. The vast majority of the meat that's currently available derives from animals that have been fed antibiotics at subtherapeutic levels [...] Ostensibly, this is because it improves feed conversion rates and reduces mortality. However, this creates the ideal environment for bacteria to evolve various forms of resistance against these drugs, and that's exactly what's been happening. [...]
You'd think that state and federal officials would be trying to combat this potential catastrophe. To the contrary, they've opted to weaken regulatory oversight, ceding this responsibility to industry. [...] This is as unfortunate as it is predictable: the potential consequences for public health are dire, but thanks to scant regulation, the industry has no incentive to police itself more aggressively.
As Silbergeld argues, the rise of the antibiotic resistant bacteria is particularly discouraging because it doesn't have to be this way, even from the industry's perspective....
EXCERPT: [...] For the many ways in which intensive animal agriculture pollutes and degrades the environment, you can look at Lisa Kemmerer's "Eating Earth". And if you're curious about how it uses and abuses workers, you can read Timothy Pachirat's "Every Twelve Seconds". But until now, there hasn't been a volume dedicated to detailing the public health crisis for which intensive animal agriculture is responsible. Ellen Silbergeld's "Chickenizing Farms & Food" fills this important gap.
Here, in short, is the problem. The vast majority of the meat that's currently available derives from animals that have been fed antibiotics at subtherapeutic levels [...] Ostensibly, this is because it improves feed conversion rates and reduces mortality. However, this creates the ideal environment for bacteria to evolve various forms of resistance against these drugs, and that's exactly what's been happening. [...]
You'd think that state and federal officials would be trying to combat this potential catastrophe. To the contrary, they've opted to weaken regulatory oversight, ceding this responsibility to industry. [...] This is as unfortunate as it is predictable: the potential consequences for public health are dire, but thanks to scant regulation, the industry has no incentive to police itself more aggressively.
As Silbergeld argues, the rise of the antibiotic resistant bacteria is particularly discouraging because it doesn't have to be this way, even from the industry's perspective....