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 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 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 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 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. U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the only
microbiologist in Congress, recently reintroduced the bill, which calls
for the end of using medically important antibiotics on healthy food animals.
