So what can you do to help stop the misuse of antibiotics and prevent the growth of superbugs?

• Be a responsible consumer:  Purchase meat, poultry, milk and eggs from companies and farmers that don’t routinely feed their animals antibiotics.
• Cut down on your antibiotic use: Don’t take antibiotics unless you actually have a bacterial infection. Antibiotics won’t help a cold or virus and taking them for illnesses they can’t treat helps contribute to antibiotic resistance.
• Make your voice heard:
  • Join the Citizens Against Superbugs campaign
  • Sign the Superbug Petition and tell the President of the United States to stop the misuse of antibiotics in food animal production
  • Support the FDA’s proposed rule to limit the use of cephalosporins in food production — and let them know they should do more by commenting on the page.
  • Spread the word: Tell all your friends and family members why you oppose the misuse of antibiotics in food animals — and why they should too!

Now that we’ve talked about how to identify meat and poultry products raised without antibiotics, it’s time to get real. Antibiotic free food costs more. Organic food (and choosing organic is one of the best ways to make sure your food is actually antibiotic free) costs more. And when you’re at the supermarket, sometimes it’s hard to justify spending the extra money when a conventional product looks exactly the same as an organic one. So today I want to talk about why it’s important to keep choosing those products that, on the surface, cost more. I also want to talk about the real cost of food, and why those organic prices might not actually add up to paying all that much more in the long run.

How can it cost more to make food with less additives?

Seriously! It’s pretty crazy that food raised without antibiotics, hormones and chemical pesticides and fertilizers is priced higher on the supermarket shelf than food raised with those additives. Shouldn’t food that contains less cost less? But organic food prices reflect the true cost of raising food, and the actual cost of a food product is often not the price for which it is sold. Here are a few reasons why:

• Subsidies: Industrial farms are often given subsidies, which artificially lower the cost of their products. For example, in 2008, $7.5 billion went to industrial farm subsidies, while only $15 million went to support smaller local and organic farms. Subsidizing certain farms and certain products allows the food companies that sell those products to price them lower than their organic counterparts — so in many cases it’s not that organic foods are over-priced, but that conventional foods are under-priced.
• Production Costs and Scale: Production costs of organic food are higher because farmers generally need more time and space to raise their products, and often require more manual labor. Livestock raised without antibiotics, for example, cannot be raised in the same overcrowded conditions as livestock that are routinely fed antibiotics. Livestock that aren’t administered antibiotics to promote growth also take longer to mature. And organic feed costs anywhere from $130 to $180 more per ton than non-organic feed. The result is healthier animals, healthier farm workers and healthier consumers — but also that it takes more time, space, and work to create the same amount of food as larger industrial farms.

How much more does antibiotic free food actually cost?

Maybe not as much as we think. The National Academy of Sciences conducted a study that estimated that banning the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock production would cost consumers a total of $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion a year — which means an increase of between $4.85 to $9.72 a year for the average consumer.

These costs are even lower when we consider the costs on society that go unaccounted for in the price of food from industrial farms. Conventional food prices may be lower, but the health and environmental effects of these industrial food systems come with a high price. In addition to clean-up costs from polluted water and pesticide run off, consider this: the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics has estimated that antibiotic resistant bacteria generate between $16.6 billion to $26 billion per year in extra costs to the United States health care system — way more than the cost to consumers of banning non-therapeutic antibiotic use in industrial farming.

So What Does Vote with Your Dollars Mean?

It means that the more consumers make purchases that reflect their values, the more the food system will begin to adopt those values. Simply put, the more we demand organic and antibiotic free products, the more farmers will see an incentive to producing those products. And the more available those products become, the less they will cost. “Voting” with your dollars helps keep us healthier and helps support farmers that are raising organic and antibiotic free food.

But unfortunately just voting with your dollars isn’t enough to create changes we need. That’s why we’re Citizens Against Superbugs, and not just Consumers Against Superbugs. So my last blog post tomorrow is about taking action and being engaged — and how you can help create the changes needed in our food system.

Did you know that meat labeled as “natural” can come from animals that are routinely given antibiotics in their food and water? In fact, the word “natural” isn’t even regulated by the FDA or USDA — and in addition to exposure to antibiotics, “natural” meat may come from animals that have been given hormones, raised in confinement, and fed animal by-products. Let’s face it, all the terms that appear on our food labels can get pretty confusing — and there’s currently no labeling standard to alert consumers about animals’ antibiotic intake. So here’s what to look for on a label to make sure that the meat and poultry products you choose for your family come from animals that were raised without the use of antibiotics.

• “Antibiotic Free:” This one seems like a good bet, but the USDA has actually banned the use of the term “antibiotic free” on meat and poultry. That’s because, like “natural,” different companies define the term differently and there is no verification process in place to ensure that meat labeled as “antibiotic free” comes from animals that have never been exposed to antibiotics during the course of their lifetimes.
• “Raised without antibiotics” or “No antibiotics administered:” The USDA allows food companies to label meat and poultry products with these labels to indicate that the animals their meat products come from are not routinely administered antibiotics. Even if an animal is administered antibiotics to treat illness, it can’t be sold with this label. The USDA regulates products that make these claims, but some companies go the extra mile and have their farms audited by a third party to verify that their animals have never been administered antibiotics. That’s why it’s always good to know your companies — do your research to make sure that their values line up with yours.
• “Organic” or “100% Organic:” Products labeled as USDA certified organic are another good choice to ensure that the meat and poultry products you buy come from animals that have not been routinely administered antibiotics. In order to meet the National Organic Program standards, meat and poultry can never be administered antibiotics or growth hormones, and their feed must be 100% organic. In fact, even if an animal is administered antibiotics to treat illness, it can’t be labeled as organic. So look for the USDA Certified Organic label on your meat and poultry products to be sure you’re feeding your family antibiotic free meat.

Looking for sources of meat raised without antibiotics? The Eat Well Guide is a great resource for finding places to shop in your neighborhood.

What do you look for when choosing meat and poultry products for your family?

Yesterday I introduced some pretty scary statistics about antibiotic resistance and today I want to go into more depth about how it all works.

“Aren’t antibiotics for strep throat and ear infections?”

Antibiotics are one of the most important inventions of modern medicine. In humans they’re used to treat health conditions that are caused by bacteria, including ear infections, strep throat, food poisoning, and serious conditions like pneumonia and meningitis. They also help prevent infection after medical procedures like surgery.

But the majority of antibiotics in the United States — more than 30.6 million pounds in 2010 alone — are used in industrial farming, where they are administered to healthy animals to artificially speed up growth and to make up for unsanitary living conditions. Most of these antibiotics are used without any oversight by a veterinarian.

“So what is a Superbug?”

When bacteria are exposed to antibiotics on a regular basis — the way they are when antibiotics are routinely and non-therapeutically used in industrial farming — they begin to develop new traits to protect themselves. Much like how people develop immunities to certain diseases when they’re exposed to small amounts of them through immunization, bacteria develop immunity to antibiotics when they’re repeatedly exposed to them, leading to new, stronger strains of bacteria. Basically, what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger. These resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” have adapted to the point where certain antibiotics can no longer kill them. This means some antibiotics are no longer effective for treating specific diseases.

Antibiotic resistance has been growing because of the overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals, and cases of infection by antibiotic resistant bacteria are also increasing rapidly. Now one out of six cases of campylobacter infection, the most common cause of bacterial food poisoning, is resistant to the antibiotic most often used to treat severe food poisoning.

“But I always cook my meat to well-done — am I okay?”

It’s true that being diligent about food safety is important in  preventing foodborne illness. Most of us already take steps to prevent foodborne illness from affecting our families, including cooking our meat thoroughly and being careful about spreading potential bacteria from uncooked meat, carefully washing our produce, and purchasing pasteurized products. We can help keep our families even safer by choosing meat, poultry, and dairy products from companies that don’t administer antibiotics to their livestock and who raise their livestock in healthy, sanitary conditions.

But it’s not enough. Industrial farms create tremendous amounts of concentrated animal waste — over one billions tons each year — and much of that waste is full of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. An estimated 75% of the antibiotics administered to farm animals are not fully digested and enter the environment as waste products, where they can encounter other bacteria and create more antibiotic resistant strains. Because of the huge amounts of waste produced by industrial farms, these bacteria can enter and contaminate the water supply.

Everyone is at risk when antibiotics no longer work, but children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk. So it’s incredibly important that we take steps to curb the tide of antibacterial resistance.

“What Can We Do?”

Actually, a lot. Tomorrow I’ll talk about what to look for when purchasing meat and poultry products to make sure the food you feed your family is free of antibiotics. Thursday, I’ll discuss the real cost of producing food and why it’s important to vote with your dollars and buy sustainably produced food products. And Friday, I’ll talk about ways that we can take action to protect our families against superbugs — and keep antibiotics working for future generations.

Here’s a scary statistic: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 48 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States every year, causing 3,000 deaths and 128,000 hospitalizations. Nearly half of reported foodborne illnesses occur in children under the age of fifteen.

Here’s another one: Today nearly all strains of staph infection (an infection caused by the Staphylococcus bacteria, which commonly results in minor skin infections but can become life-threatening if it enters your bloodstream, bones, or organs) found in the United States are resistant to penicillin. Many strains are also resistant to newer families of antibiotics.

And one more: 80% of antibiotics sold in the United States are given to animals raised for food. In most cases, these antibiotics are administered non-therapeutically, which means that rather than being given to treat an illness, the antibiotics are given to promote growth and to compensate for the effects of unsanitary and over-crowded farm conditions.

At first glance, these facts might seem unrelated. But they actually all stem back to a major problem with our food system: most of the livestock raised for food in the United States comes from industrial farms, many of which raise their animals in poor conditions that breed bacteria and contribute to foodborne illness. To make up for these conditions and to promote faster growth, many animals are routinely given antibiotics in their food and water. The USDA, FDA, and the CDC have all testified before congress that there is a definitive link between this routine, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics and the serious problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that infect humans. And the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have stated that this misuse of antibiotics in food animals is a serious and growing threat to human health.

Tomorrow I’ll go into more depth about how and why antibiotics are used in industrial farming, how they lead to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria — and how it affects all of us a lot more than we think. In the meantime, I hope you’ll share your thoughts in the comments, and join in the conversation at Citizens Against Superbugs.