Last week fellow TP blogger Travis discussed new legislation that proposes a ban on the use of antibiotics on healthy livestock, and I just wanted to follow to let you know about a great editorial in the New York Times about the issue, as well as a great campaign from the Pew Charitible Trust.  As you are probably aware by now, antibiotics intended for humans are used in abundance on many large-scale farms to compensate for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and to allegedly promote fast weight gain.  This excessive misuse of antibiotics on animals raised for food threatens public health by allowing deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria to develop, threatening the effectiveness of the antibiotics and other drugs that we rely on to stay healthy.

The issue concerns all of us and so I strongly urge you to get involved and tell Congress to pass legislation that will put this ban into effect.  You don’t even have to be a meat-eater, as antibiotic-resistant bacteria poses a risk to everyone.  By increasing the oversight of livestock drug use, and improving conditions of these factory farms, we can eliminate this huge threat to our health and that of the animals.  Learn more about antibiotic use from Pew, and use the action link below to ask your representative to cosponsor the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.  And you can track the progress of the bill here.