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FDA ANTIBIOTIC INACTION. "While it’s been considering the issue of antibiotics in livestock since the 1970s, the agency didn’t manage to do anything about it until late last year, when it proposed voluntary guidelines on antibiotics used to promote growth, long understood to be an abuse of the drugs." The USDA actually has jurisdiction over farm food. http://lnkd.in/di8_7yw View in LinkedIn

ORGANIC WORTH THE PRICE. "In the past year or two, certified organic sales have jumped to about $52 billion worldwide despite the fact that organic foods cost up to three times as much as those produced by conventional methods." http://lnkd.in/dZqQqHH View in LinkedIn

US SUPERMARKET CHICKENS HARBOR SUPERBUGS. "In a recent report, Consumer Reports tested samples of supermarket chicken, and found that half harbored drug-resistant bacteria." Antibiotic residues and antibiotic resistant bacteria then enter the food chain. http://lnkd.in/di8_7yw View in LinkedIn

US ORGANIC BOOM. "Ten years ago, Certified Organic didn’t exist in the United States. Yet in 2010, a mere eight years after USDA’s regulations officially went into effect, organic foods and beverages made $26.7 billion." http://lnkd.in/dZqQqHH View in LinkedIn

MOST US SUPERMARKET CHICKENS INFECTED. "A 2006 study by Consumer Reports found that a staggering 83 percent of grocery market chickens it tested were infected with either campylobacter or salmonella bacteria or both ... due largely to the filthy conditions in the sheds where they are raised." http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/chicken-industry/ View in LinkedIn

LARGE NUMBER OF RESISTANT GENES. "the Antibiotic Resistance Genes Database (ARDB). The treatment of infections is increasingly compromised by the ability of bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics ... Currently, ARDB contains ... 13,293 genes, 377 types, 257 antibiotics, 632 genomes, 933 species and 124 genera." http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/suppl_1/D443.long View in LinkedIn

ENORMOUS ANTIBIOTIC USE. "On factory farms, they are fed large quantities of powerful antibiotics to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them: Chickens are given nearly four times the amount of antibiotics as human beings or cattle in the United States." http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/chicken-industry/ View in LinkedIn

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION AGAINST MARKER GENES. "There should be a ban on the use of antibiotic resistance marker genes in GM food, as the risk to human health from antibiotic resistance developing in micro-organisms is one of the major public health threats that will be faced in the 21st century" http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2002/2930-crop-gene-could-weaken-medicines View in LinkedIn

US CHICKENS GIVEN ANTIBIOTICS. “Some of the nation’s largest poultry producers routinely feed chickens an array of antibiotics — not just when sickness strikes, but as a standard practice over most of the birds’ lives, ... 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to the livestock industry." These are used primarily as growth promotors and to permit overcrowding. http://lnkd.in/di8_7yw View in LinkedIn

EX-US BAN ON ANTIBIOTICS IN ANIMAL FEED. "In other parts of the world, such as the EU, adding antibiotics to animal feed to accelerate growth has been banned for years ... Eighty different antibiotics are allowed in cows' milk. According to the CDC, 22 percent of antibiotic-resistant illness in humans is in fact linked to food." http://lnkd.in/dVUWr24 View in LinkedIn