Obama administration takes aim at overuse of antibiotics in livestock

The Obama Administration has put me in a very uncomfortable position: they're doing something that I agree with. So in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due (maybe saying "giving the devil his due" would be more appropriate?), I'm going to praise the Obama Administration for launching an effort to ban the use of antibiotics in farm animals.

This practice is so common that it's estimated that as much as 70 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States are used on livestock. Nearly every commercial farmer (on non-organic farms, anyway) routinely doses their pigs, cows, chickens, and other livestock with antibiotics. This is done to healthy animals as a preventative measure to ward off illness.

The concern about the overuse of antibiotics in farming is the same as it is for overuse in human medicine: the creation of antibiotic-resistant disease. Remember, you are what you eat, so wolfing down a steady diet of beef and poultry that's been stuffed full of antibiotics can undercut efforts to restrain the overuse of antibiotics in healthcare.

Antibiotic-resistant disease is no joke, and the chronic overuse of antibiotics is not helping the situation. The constant presence of antibiotics is known to cause disease bacteria to mutate into stronger forms that can overcome the standard antibiotics.

Since even the best-run farms, butchers, and grocers sometimes allow contaminated products to reach consumers' hands, some of these farm-reared drug-resistant microbes could inevitably find their way into our homes and bodies and make us sick.

But farmers fear the devastating impact of an epidemic within their farm, which could sicken and kill livestock, damaging their bottom line. Add to this the fact that farmers also use antibiotics to help their livestock to grow bigger (bigger livestock equals more pounds of meat and thus, bigger profits), and you can see why antibiotics have become such a staple of modern livestock farming.

Because of this, it won't matter much that the powerful American Medical Association (AMA) supports proposed legislation to ban or restrict as many as seven antibiotics from farm use. The fact is, there are equally powerful lobbyists who are against it, so this measure isn't likely to pass.

If you ask me, though, the answer isn't more government legislation - it's education. I've been telling you about the upsides of putting as many organic foods on your family table as possible. Organic farms have a zero tolerance policy not just for hormones, but also for antibiotics (except in the case of actual livestock illnesses).

Grass-fed beef is especially healthier for you than beef raised by commercial cattle farms. Studies have shown that organically farmed livestock has more vitamin E, and is higher in omega fatty acids, beta-carotene, and other antioxidant compounds.

And don't think that you have to break the bank to eat organically, either. In some cases, organically raised meat can cost between 10 and 15 percent more than conventionally raised beef, pork, or poultry. But this is becoming less and less the case.

Also, some foods out there may not be 100 percent organic, but at least avoid the use of hormones and antibiotics, and these are priced comparably to standard meats. Plus, the increasing numbers of organic farms means not only increased availability of these goods, but more affordable prices.

Don't wait on politicians to start eating healthy. Make the move to organics yourself. Your body will thank you.