USA: Chefs, Farmers, Pediatricians, and Consumers Speak Out about Antibiotics

May 15, 2012
Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming
Contact: Joshua Wenderoff, Tel: work202-540-6542

WASHINGTON — Moms from Maine to Hawaii have come to Washington, D.C., today to press the Obama Administration and Congress to do more to rein in the overuse of antibiotics on America’s industrial farms, a practice that breeds antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The visit is organized by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming and the American Academy of Pediatrics, two organizations advocating for reductions in the use of antibiotics in meat and poultry production.

“For the health of our families and future generations, we cannot keep using antibiotics to compensate for overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the livestock industry,” said Cindy Madsen of Madsen Stock Farm. “We have been raising chickens without antibiotics for about 25 years and hogs for about 10 years. Our customers, who total more than 1,000 buyers in central Iowa, want meat raised without antibiotics. We know it can be done.”

“In supermarkets and in restaurants, consumer demand for meat and poultry raised without antibiotics is growing,” said Mary Sue Milliken, co-owner and chef of Border Grill restaurants. “People want to know the food they’re eating and feeding to their families was produced without putting the public’s health at risk.”...

Source: Chefs, Farmers, Pediatricians, and Consumers Speak Out about Antibiotics
Author: PEW

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