09/21/2010 - Most of the antibiotics sold in the United States —
70 percent — go to the animals we eat, especially pigs and
chickens. To speed up growth and to prevent the spread of
disease in crowded conditions, growers put small amounts of
antibiotics into animals’ daily feed. The result is nearly the
same as if we were eating the antibiotics ourselves: an increase
in antibiotic resistance in humans and the emergence of drug-
resistant microbes. In a July letter to Congress, Dr. Thomas R.
Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention warned that there is “a clear link between antibiotic
use in animals and antibiotic resistance in humans.” Despite
that warning, the regulatory agencies have been too slow and
timid in their response. Read the rest of the editorial We Are
What We Eat on The New York Times' web site.