Monday, April 19, 2010

The Dangers of Giving Antibiotics to Livestock

As my cooking students and regular readers of The Delicious Truth know, I encourage people to avoid eating meat and dairy products that come from animals administered antibiotics.

To find out why (from someone other than yours truly), click here to read an op-ed piece from yesterday’s New York Times, written by Donald Kennedy, a former commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Here is one essential part of Kennedy’s essay:
"More than 30 years ago, when I was commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, we proposed eliminating the use of penicillin and two other antibiotics to promote growth in animals raised for food. When agribusiness interests persuaded Congress not to approve that regulation, we saw firsthand how strong politics can trump wise policy and good science. Even back then, this nontherapeutic use of antibiotics was being linked to the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that infect humans."

2 comments:

Paul said...

Rob,

I've been following you for a while now, but I've just recently started my blog back up again. I'm growing heirloom tomatoes in my backyard and I wanted to document the process. Also, it's been a great experience teaching my 2 year old son where food comes from and how to plant and cook it. Thanks for what you do. It's very enlightening and very much needed.

Chef Rob said...

Paul,

Thanks for reading. Your tomatoes are going to be great. My guess is that most of your backyard will be a garden this time next year . . .

Rob