How to Combat Antibiotic Resistance

The U.S. is a developed nation with a developing health care crisis. Antibiotic resistance is growing and remarkably little is being done to combat the threat. While physicians and hospitals try alternate courses of treatment for infections, a significant culprit in the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria goes unchallenged, livestock conditions. Roughly 25 million pounds of antibiotics are fed to livestock each year, a number that amounts to nearly eight times the total consumed by humans annually. A significant majority of these medicines are dispensed before the animals get sick, as a prophylactic measure necessary to combat the living conditions in which disease thrives and about a third of the classes of antibiotics used in livestock are also used in the human population.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Give up conventionally raised meats. Switch to certified organic or antibiotic-free meat. To prevent sticker shock, switch one type of meat at a time. For example, first switch out all beef products, then all chicken, then all turkey, etc.

2. Try to patronize dining establishments that promise to use antibiotic-free products.

3. Write letters. Write to the heads of major meat packagers, national restaurant chains, schools and grocers. Ask them to do their part to combat antibiotic resistance by purchasing meat that was never treated with antibiotics. Encourage them to use their buying power to effect change in the way livestock is raised.

4. Write Congress. Request laws that require all meat treated with antibiotics to carry a label and a warning about antibiotic resistance. Write grocers and ask them to voluntarily label meats treated with antibiotics until Congress passes a comprehensive law.

5. Be an advocate. Share your concerns about antibiotic resistance with friends and family. Encourage those who share your concerns to make similar dietary changes and begin letter writing campaigns.

Tips & Warnings

• Antibiotic-free meats are commonly found in health food stores and organic grocers. Consumers shopping there are also often concerned about hormones in meats, therefore meat available in these stores may be marketed as free of antibiotics and hormones.
• Some CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture groups) include meat in their shares which may help combat increases in food costs due to purchasing antibiotic-free meat.
• Antibiotic-free meats are usually more expensive. In addition to making a gradual switch, consider incorporating more vegetarian meals into your diet to mitigate some of the additional costs.