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The article below sheds a very bright light on the abuse of antibiotics
and hormones in the agriculture industry.
Ozone used in the
purification and decontamination of food products should
be carefully considered by any health conscious individual.
Antibiotic Abuse in Agriculture1
You can't prevent the presence
of antibiotics in food sources... 
...but you can remove the antibiotics!
Food and Water Ozonator
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Because organic practices recognize and respect
the powerful nature of antibiotics, organic practices protect
human health in the long term. Organic practices prohibit the
use of hormones, antibiotics or other animal drugs in animal
feed for the purpose of stimulating the growth or production
of livestock. If an antibiotic is used to restore an animal
to health, that animal cannot be used for organic production
or be sold, labeled or represented as organic. Thus, organic
practices avoid the abuse of antibiotics that could have profound
consequences for treatment of disease in humans, including
the serious dangers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The following highlight findings concerning the
abuse of antibiotics in agriculture:
Public health authorities
now link low-level antibiotic use in conventionally raised
livestock directly to greater numbers of people contracting
infections that resist treatment with the same drugs. Microbiologist
Rustam Aminov and colleagues at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign have discovered that bacteria in the soil
and groundwater beneath farms seem to be acquiring tetracycline
resistance genes from bacteria originating in pigs' guts. Studying
the environmental effects of antibiotics used as growth promoters
on two swine farms, Aminov's team analyzed samples from farm-waste
lagoons and from groundwater reservoirs beneath the lagoons,
and found that bacteria in the soil and groundwater carried
tetracycline resistance genes.2
A preliminary survey of beef and poultry sold
in U.S. supermarkets conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
found relatively high levels of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, according to a report presented at the 101st annual
meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in May 2001.
FDA microbiologist Dr. David Wagner reported that investigators
found "fairly
substantial amounts of resistance to a number of drugs."3
The American Medical Association in June 2001
adopted a resolution opposing the use of antimicrobials at
non-therapeutic levels in agriculture, or as pesticides or
growth promoters, and urged that such uses be ended or phased
out based on scientifically sound risk assessments.4
"The reason to buy meat without antibiotics is
not because the antibiotics in the meat are transferred to
the
person, but because of how the antibiotics increase the number
of antibiotic-resistant bacteria," according to
Dr. Stuart Levy, director of the Center of Adaptation Genetics
and Drug Resistance at Tufts University
Medical School, in a New York Times article by Marion Burros.5
Carol Goforth, the Clayton N. Little Professor
of Law at the University of Arkansas, and Robyn Goforth, a
biochemistry graduate student, have called for regulation of
antibiotic use in livestock due to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant
infections in humans. In a paper in the Boston College Environmental
Affairs Law Review, the Goforths cited the growing body of
scientific literature linking sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics
in livestock to mutated, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and
to outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant infections in humans.6
In
its report "WHO Global Strategy for Containment of
Antimicrobial Resistance," the United Nations' World Health
Organization (WHO) noted that farmers' use of antibiotics to
fatten livestock and poultry enables microbes to build up defenses
against the drugs, jump up the food chain, and attack human
immune systems. WHO urged farmers to stop the practice of using
antibiotics for growth promotion if such antimicrobials are
also used in humans.7
Conventional farmers routinely feed antibiotics
to livestock because flocks and herds tend to grow faster with
their use. However, scientists, doctors, and government officials
fear this is contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant "super-bugs." Farm
animals in the United States receive 24.6 million pounds of
antibiotics a year, which may be fueling the rise of drug-resistant
bacteria, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
UCS noted that about 70 percent of all antibiotics made in
the United States are used to fatten up livestock.8
Three
studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine verified
that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are widespread
in commercial meats and poultry in the United States and also
are found in consumers' intestines. The studies show evidence
that the routine use of antibiotics to enhance growth in farm
animals can encourage the growth of drug-resistant bacteria,
which may threaten people who undercook their meat or consume
food or water contaminated by animal droppings. An accompanying
editorial written by Dr. Sherwood L. Gorbach, an infectious
disease specialist at Tufts University's medical school, urged
a ban on the routine use of low-dose antibiotics to aid animal
growth and prevent infection because it sets up
conditions for the emergence of resistant bacteria.9
Water samples from the Ohio River and two of
its tributaries contained trace amounts of commonly prescribed
antibiotics, such as penicillin, tetraycline, and
vancomycin. They were also present in area tap water. The results
were from a science project undertaken by 17-year-old high
school senior Ashley Mulroy.10
Findings
published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicate that
the controversial practice of administering antibiotics
to cattle may have led to the development of salmonella resistant
to the antibiotic ceftriaxone. The study, led by Paul Fey of
the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory, examined the case of
a 12-year-old boy infected with salmonella.11
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