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Wake Up, Secretary Vilsack
Posted: 05/ 9/11 08:34 AM ET
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurie-david/post_2010_b_858871.html?view=print)
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Dear Secretary Vilsack,
I'd like to thank you for tackling some very tough questions from audience
members at last Wednesday's _The Future of Food conference_
(http://washingtonpostlive.com/conferences/food/archive) in Washington, DC. Your passion
and commitment for farmers and rural communities is moving and greatly
appreciated. I must admit, however, I am extremely disappointed with your
response to _my question_ (http://www.georgetown.edu/story/vilsack.html) about
antibiotic use in food animals. I asked, when will the government do
something to stop producers from squandering 70% of our antibiotics on healthy
farm animals? You answered with the question, "How do you basically legislate
that?"
Almost everyone in the audience knew the answer. Spontaneously, like a
Greek chorus, dozens of voices yelled out, "regulate it!" How else are we
going to save our antibiotics for what they were first intended? Without
antibiotics modern medicine could literally be _taken back_
(http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/46/2/155.abstract) to the days when a simple childhood
ear infection lead to permanent hearing loss and worse cases death.
Mr. Secretary, knowing your passion to help the people who live in rural
communities, there is no larger issue to focus your attention on than
protecting them from antibiotic-resistant bacteria sourced from food animals.
Public health experts warn farm workers and the people who live near these
factory farms face a _greater risk_
(http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/Indiana%20--%20CAFOs%20%20Communities.htm) of farm-acquired
antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections than the general public.
I understand that the USDA's stance, as you stated, is to encourage farmers
to use antibiotics "judiciously." With all due respect, our current
predicament is proof that "voluntary" measures don't work and now there is no
time left to ask industrial producers nicely to stop wasting our antibiotics.
We must act now. While regulating antibiotics may fall under the Food and
Drug Administration's jurisdiction, as the Secretary of Agriculture, I hope
you take the time to find ways to support the FDA in "regulating" this
gross misuse of modern medicine's most precious resource. You may also want to
consider standing behind the _Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical
Treatment Act_
(http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/03/rep-slaughter-reintroduces-bill-to-limit-antibiotic-use-in-ag/) . U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter
(D-NY), the only microbiologist in Congress, recently _reintroduced_
(http://www.louise.house.gov/) the bill, which calls for the end of using
medically important antibiotics on healthy food animals.
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