k fed up

Horrifying story from Mother Jones detailing The FDA’s Christmas Present for Factory Farms. In a nutshell, the FDA has decided not to pursue its decades-long quest to limit the routine use of antibiotics on animal farms, ruling instead that now it will support voluntary reform.

Now, it should be remembered that the original goal of the FDA to curb antibiotic use in such farms was not born from deference for the health and well-being of the animals. This isn’t lefty animal lib hysteria, but because, as noted here, even by 1977, “it was already obvious that routine use of these drugs would generate antibiotic-resistant pathogens that endanger humans.” You know, the kind of thing the FDA is really designed to care about.

Yet the real horror of the story is not merely the stark statistic above, which should surely strike fear into the heart of all, but the insanity of the idea that somehow the billion-dollar meat industry is suddenly going to voluntarily curb its antibiotic use in a moment of thoughtful self-regulation. We KNOW that doesn’t happen, right? And then, of course, there’s writer Tom Philpott’s “oh right, duh” conclusion: it’s the money, stupid. As he writes, the action “could be a signal that the FDA is delaying real action until after the 2012 election, in an effort to keep meat-industry “dark money” from flowing to President Obama’s opponent. In 2011, the Obama administration has acted repeatedly to appease agribussiness interests.”

What a pathetic, craven world we live in.

(via thoughtyoushouldseethis)

Healthy meat is more expensive. Eat less meat, and when you treat yourself and your family, buy from a farmer whose hand you’ve shaken, and who has told you about how he or she raises the animals. Grassfed if possible. The factory food system is not safe for human consumption, safe for the Earth, or remotely mindful to the life of the beast we enjoy eating. Only we can stop this insanity, one purchase at a time. 

(via do-over)