Sick Food

Some incredibly enlightening testimony on the use of antibiotics in livestock.  Everyone should invest in the hours to hear this testimony.   Some highlights,

"...seven classes of antibiotics considered crucial by the FDA are used as normal feed additives for chicken, cattle, and pork..."

"... 70% of human-use antibiotics are given to animals..."

Alarmed?  No?  Let's look deeper...

"Especially troubling is their use not to cure sick animals but to promote "feed efficiency," that is, to increase the animal's weight gain per unit of feed. "... according to the Union of Concerned Scientist.

"Agricultural use, much of it for growth promotion, accounts for 40 percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States. " 

For related reasons, if you haven't already, you should watch King Corn which will give a good clue as to why the cattle need all those antibiotics (hint: cows don't digest corn well even though our tax dollars subsidize it as feed).