Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA
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| More importantly, organically raised livestock are not given antibiotics or growth hormones, which collect in the flesh, eggs, and milk of their conventionally farmed counterparts and increase cancer risk and risk of antibiotic resistance in people who consume them. Organic and free-range animals are also fed more wholesome diets, with less contamination by estrogenic chemicals, and so less of these toxic, carcinogenic estrogens collect in the foods that come from them. |
| Confronting the antibiotic resistance Crisis: Making Appropriate Therapeutic Decisions in Community Medical Practice," website: www.medscape.com). And if you think antibiotic abuse isn't about money, think about the billions of dollars those millions of prescriptions represent.
Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, warned us nearly a century ago that the overuse of antibiotics would create resistant bacteria. Even Louis Pasteur, the father of germ warfare using antibiotics, is said to have admitted on his deathbed, "the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything. |
Peter Pringle
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 They also argued that the risk of antibiotic resistance spreading to bacteria in the human gut was much greater from the heavy use of antibiotics to prevent diseases in cattle and poultry, as well as overprescription by family doctors.
In its submission Calgene noted that large numbers of bacteria isolated from humans were already resistant to these antibiotics. "A fresh salad with lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumbers, and tomatoes is actually a major source of these organisms."25 Drinking water was another significant source of resistant bugs. |
| One of the most popular antibiotic resistance genes, known as nptll, produces an enzyme that inactivates the common antibiotic kanamycin. The test is disarmingly simple. The experimental plant cells are grown in a medium containing the antibiotic. If the plant cells have received the antibiotic-resistance gene, they survive. If not, they die.
The potential problem comes later. Once the transgenic plant has grown, the antibiotic gene no longer performs any useful function, becoming excess baggage, but the plant continues to produce the antibiotic-resistance enzyme. |
Jeremy P. Tarcher
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 Just as with the risks of feedlot beef, which now contributes to heart disease, groundwater depletion, antibiotic resistance, and more, no citizens were asked to weigh the risks of GMOs against possible gains.
So, might we come to see GMOs as a symptom of a deeper crisis?
Instead of distracting us from questions of democracy, genetic engineering could turn out to be our ultimate wake-up call. |
| Alarmed that this practice is transferring dangerous antibiotic resistance to us humans, even the American Medical Association has called on livestock producers to stop.24
Locked in the thought trap—the single-minded focus on ever greater production—we ironically cannot even see how we're reducing potential supply, destroying the basis of future security, and endangering our health.
Thought Trap Two: Thank our selfish genes. Linked to this fixation is the assumption that the only way to keep the machinery of production in highest gear is to rely on our innate selfishness. |
Patrick Holford
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 The implications for human health and the environment remain unknown, though there are concerns that GM food could pose a serious health risk, with possible health problems involving antibiotic resistance, the creation of new toxins, and unexpected allergic reactions. The reality is that these concerns remain largely speculative because no one can predict what the outcome of the introduction of GM food into the food chain will be. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 While the use of antibiotics in human medicine is probably the biggest contributor to antibiotic resistance, the contribution of animal use is being considered to the extent that the American Medical Association has adopted a resolution urging that the nonmedical use of antibiotics in animals should be terminated or phased out. The FDA has announced plans to ban the use of two antibiotics commonly used in chickens and turkeys, saying the use increases the danger that humans may become infected with antibiotic-resistant germs. The U.S. |
Patrick Holford
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| The World Health Organization has called for a reduction in the use of antibiotics in agriculture because of the risk to human health, while the American Medical Association has warned that "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 twenty-first century."1
Too much meat could be bad for your health and your bones
Meat eaters have a low health rating. The risk of heart disease and cancer, particularly cancer of the stomach and colon, is directly related to meat consumption. |
Marion Nestle
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 Chapter 6 evaluates the benefits claimed for genetically modified foods, as well as their safety risks: allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, and environmental impact. In chapter 7,1 discuss the politics of government oversight of genetically modified foods and describe how the industry convinced federal regulatory agencies to use a strictly science-based approach to risk evaluation, thereby allowing companies to plant first, then deal with problems (rather than requiring premarket testing). |
Death by MedicineGary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD.
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| The tons of antibiotics used in animal farming, which run off into the water table and surrounding bodies of water, are conferring antibiotic resistance to germs in sewage, and these germs are also found in our water supply. Flushed down our toilets are tons of drugs and drug metabolites that also find their way into our water supply. We have no idea what the long-term consequences of ingesting a mixture of drugs and drug-breakdown products will do to our health. It's another level of iatrogenic disease that we are unable to completely measure. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 In spite of the concerns about antibiotic resistance and the unresolved questions about the feeding trial, the FDA approved the FlavrSavr tomato on May 18, 1994. According to Druker, the FDA "claimed that all relevant safety issues had been satisfactorily resolved and said that because the FlavrSavr had performed so well, it would be unnecessary for any subsequent bioengineered food to be subjected to the same rigorous standard of testing. To date, there is no reliable evidence showing that any has successfully met the standard the FlavrSavr failed to meet. |
| The transfer of antibiotic resistance to infectious bacteria is not an issue with Roundup Ready soy, since it does not contain an antibiotic resistant marker gene. It is an issue for GM corn and it has not been adequately tested.
8. Effects of the environment on gene expression and differences in genetic make-up of soy varieties were assessed only under limited conditions. Their effects were measured using only a few factors, such as crop yield.
9. Synthetic genes were considered equivalent. Any potential differences were not addressed in the research.
10. |
| Just as with the risks of feedlot beef, now contributing to heart disease, groundwater depletion, antibiotic resistance, and more, no citizens were asked to weigh the risks of GMOs against possible gains. Yet today most of us are eating them, while kept completely in the dark as to the hazards we may be facing—for ourselves, our children, and the farming ecosystems on which our lives depend.
How has this assault on democracy happened?
As citizens, we've been duped and marginalized from our rightful role in momentous public choices. |
Death by MedicineGary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD.
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| The CDC is also involved with trying to minimize antibiotic resistance, but nowhere in their publications is there any reference to the role of nutraceuticals in boosting the immune system nor to the thousands of journal articles that support this approach. This recalcitrant tunnel vision and refusal to use available non-drug alternatives is absolutely inappropriate when the CDC is desperately trying to curb the nightmare of overuse of antibiotics. The CDC should also be called to task because it is only focusing on the overuse of antibiotics. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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| It suggests that you can get antibiotic marker genes spreading around the stomach which would compromise antibiotic resistance."16
Bt corn contains an ARM gene that resists the commonly prescribed antibiotic, ampicillin. Scientists worry that this gene's widespread presence in human and animal food will render ampicillin useless in treating disease. The World Health Organization, Britain's House of Lords, the American Medical Association, and even the Royal Society have all called for a phase-out of the use of ARM genes.
6. |
Marion Nestle
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| In the worst-case scenario, for example, a plant gene might recombine with the DNA of bacteria living in the intestines of animals or people and pass the trait for antibiotic resistance along to disease-causing bacteria. The antibiotic used in the selection process would be ineffective as a treatment option. Alternatively, the antibiotic might be useless if people taking it were eating foods containing genes for resistance to that drug. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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 The Last Line of Antibiotic Defense
As the problems of antibiotic resistance become ever more global, scientists see an increasing role for aminoglycosides in clinical practice. Aminoglycosides ate chemical compounds that are present in a variety of antibiotics. Some are derived naturally from microorganisms, while others are synthesized. Their broad antimicrobial spectrum and ability to act syn-ergistically with other drugs make them very useful in treating serious nosocomial (hospital-induced) infections. |
Marion Nestle
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| This action—if diligently taken—is a useful step in reducing antibiotic resistance.
Another idea is to prevent the proliferation of E. coli 0157:^17 in animals without using antibiotics by changing the way they are fed. Typically, producers feed cattle soy and corn to fatten the animals just before slaughter; these foods are low in fiber, reduce the acidity of digestive solutions, and promote the growth of unfriendly bacteria. In contrast, feeding high-fiber hay to ruminant animals selects for friendlier bacteria capable of breaking down cellulose to usable nutrients. |
| Two additional features of this situation are particularly compelling: (1) studies now indicate that induction of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is reversible, and (z) prevention of animal infections can be accomplished by means other than antibiotics. In 2002, Belgian researchers reported that banning certain antibiotics from use in animal feed decreases the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and makes the drugs more effective in treating microbial illness in hospital patients. |
Ray Strand, M.D.
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 A follow-up study reported in the Journal of of antibiotic resistance. the American Medical Association objectively considered whether these campaigns had been effective or not. Researchers looked at the pediatric use of antibiotics in 1999 and compared it to that of 1989, when antibiotic use was at its all-time high. Seemingly optimistic results showed the overall use of antibiotics fell more than 30 percent in the pediatric population during this time. But there was more to see. |
Marion Nestle
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| Their arguments: antibiotics are essential to their industries, most animal producers use antibiotics prudently, and the dangers of transfer of antibiotic resistance from animals to people are unproven. By one estimate, nearly 25 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal agriculture, whereas just 3 million are used to treat human infections. Altogether, nearly three-fourths of all antibiotics are used for nontherapeutic purposes in animals. |
Ray Strand, M.D.
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| The development of new antibiotics has not kept up with the development of antibiotic resistance."11
Major Educational Campaigns
Most people (especially physicians) now realize that viral infections do not respond to antibiotics. Unless doctors actually take cultures, however, they can't be certain whether a virus or a bacterium is causing the patient's sore throat, upper respiratory infection, or bronchitis. |
Marion Nestle
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| Attempts to regulate transgenic antibiotic resistance began in 1990, when Calgene, an agricultural biotechnology company, asked the FDA for an opinion about whether it could use a gene for resistance to the antibiotic kanamycin (neomycin) as a selection marker for constructing transgenic tomatoes and canola oilseeds. This particular resistance gene specifies production of an enzyme able to inactivate kanamycin and related antibiotics. |
J. E. Williams, O.M.D.
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 Of course it does not work at all, and the inappropriate use of an antibiotic for a viral condition may lead to antibiotic resistance and cause the antibiotic to become ineffective for future use, as seen in George's case. As is commonly the case in chronic sinusitis, the bacteria learn how to outsmart, and thereby resist, the drug. |
John Robbins
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 There is no controversy about where antibiotic resistance in food-borne pathogens comes from ... (It) is due to the heavy use of antibiotics in livestock."
—Dr. Frederick J. Angulo, epidemiologist in the food-borne and diarrheal disease branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention40
What new microbes will emerge to beset us in the coming years? It is impossible to know, but there are four things that, based on past experience, we can predict with virtual certainty.
First, newly emerging food-borne disease pathogens often find their way into the human body via animal foods. |
| Second, our ability to treat bacterial infections will be increasingly-compromised due to antibiotic resistance.
Third, as these problems develop, the meat, dairy, and egg industries will do their best to deflect attention and downplay their responsibility.
And fourth, the surest way to protect ourselves and our loved ones will be to move away from dependence on animal products.
JJormones in U.S. Meat
Antibiotics are not the only pharmaceutical substance routinely used in U.S. beef production though banned just about everywhere else. Currently, U.S. |
| A year later, the journal Science called the meat industry "the driving force behind the development of antibiotic resistance in certain species of bacteria that cause human disease."" Later in 1998, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) blamed the serious emergence of Salmonella bacteria resistant to no less than five different antibiotics on the use of antibiotics in livestock.21
By then, many nations, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Germany, and many other European countries had banned the routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock. |
| In 1989, the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences, stated that the use of antibiotics in factory farms was responsible for antibiotic resistance in bacteria and was seriously undermining the ability of these agents to protect human health.19 Three years later, the Institute of Medicine stated that multi-drug-resistant bacteria had now become a serious medical concern, causing diseases that were difficult or impossible to cure. The Institute of Medicine laid the problem squarely on the doorstep of animal factories. |
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
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| A 1989 National Academy of Sciences study of the problem noted that while such direct evidence of human antibiotic resistance caused by use in animal feed is rare, there is a significant theoretical basis for concern.
Milk, the dietary staple of young children, also can contain antibiotics as well as other drugs. In 1990, the FDA reported that eight of seventy samples of milk taken from stores in fourteen cities contained very small levels of drugs, including antibiotics and the suspected carcinogen sulfamethazine (a sulfa drug). |
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