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FLEMING'S PREDICTION PROVEN. "Penicillin-resistant staph emerged in 1940, while the drug was still being given to only a few patients. Tetracycline was introduced in 1950, and tetracycline-resistant Shigella emerged in 1959; erythromycin came on the market in 1953, and erythromycin-resistant strep appeared in 1968." https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77 View in LinkedIn

DANGERS OF THE IGNORANT MAN. "It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them… There is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” (Sir Alexander Fleming's Nobel acceptance speech 1945). https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77 View in LinkedIn

POST-ANTIBIOTIC ERA. "Last week a global coalition of organizations from six continents called on the World Health Organization to adopt a resolution to discourage the growing crisis of antibiotic-resistance worldwide, warning of a "post-antibiotic era" with disastrous public health implications." http://lnkd.in/dJDRfdj View in LinkedIn

US ANTIBIOTICS USE IN FARM ANIMALS. "About 80 percent of antibiotics are fed to farm animals, often to promote growth or to compensate for unsanitary and crowded conditions on factory farms. Other countries that have limited their use -- including Denmark -- have seen a drop in the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria." http://lnkd.in/dJDRfdj View in LinkedIn

US AND EC TRADE TALKS are hung up on significant differences in attitudes towards food regulation. This is not limited to chlorinated chickens, but embraces a raft of issues. The general US public has been largely unaware of the lack of regulation of the food industry. The FDA has no jurisdiction. The USDA, which does have jurisdiction on farm food, is pro-industry, and passive. View in LinkedIn

MASSIVE POULTRY INDUSTRY CHANGES. In 1925 it took 16 weeks to get a chicken to market size, weighing 2.2 lbs, and needing 4.7 lbs of feed per pound of bird. By 2010, it was down to 6 weeks to get to market, at 5.7 lbs, and only needing 1.75 lbs of feed per pound of meat. Dramatic changes by genetics, biological manipulation, and corporate farming. http://lnkd.in/duaygqG View in LinkedIn

ANTIBIOTICS IN MEAT. This is the topic of the next series of blogs, with a continued emphasis on the use for poultry, where the US justification for chlorine baths and the resulting risk of carcinogenic byproducts, is that it sterilizes the meat. This is another sticking point in US/EC trade talks. View in LinkedIn

AT THE RETIREMENT PARTY for two Cambridge University Professors, J Paul Luzio PhD, and Kenneth Siddle PhD, who have worked together for 45 years since undergraduates at Cambridge, and served together with late Nick Hales MD PhD; this group had worked and trained with all the greats in biochemistry, their retirement is the end of an era, and immense influence on hundreds of scientists. View in LinkedIn

"FOOD IS EVERYTHING" is the tag line for the staff cafeteria at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at Cambridge University (Addenbrooke's Hospital). The have organically certified meat (www.redtractor.org.uk), fruit and vegetables (www.leafuk.org), fish (www.msc.org) and coffee (www.coffeeworld.org). A long way from 28 years ago with appalling hospital food. View in LinkedIn

"FARMAGEDDON is a fascinating and terrifying investigative journey behind the closed doors of a runaway industry across the world - from the UK, Europe and the USA, to China, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. It is both a wake-up call to change our current food production and eating practices and an attempt to find a way to a better farming future." http://lnkd.in/djexzJ8 View in LinkedIn