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MRSA in Our Pork

Look, I’ve watched ER. I know that rampant overuse of antibiotics has given rise to virulent “superbugs” that don’t respond to traditional treatment. I understand my pediatrician is not going to prescribe antibiotics for my kids unless absolutely necessary. I recognize this is an important step in preventing ever more antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria from developing.

Which is why I was so extremely irritated to learn from the New York Times that 70 percent of American antibiotics are given to healthy livestock, contributing to the rise of these resistant strains in our food supply. 

“Five out of 90 samples of retail pork in Louisiana tested positive for MRSA — an antibiotic-resistant staph infection — according to a peer-reviewed study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology last year….Research by Peter Davies of the University of Minnesota suggests that 25 percent to 39 percent of American hogs carry MRSA.”

Now, no one has proven that pork can pass MRSA infections through their meat (although that certainly doesn’t make it more palatable) but that’s really not the point.  What angers me here is the willingness of big business to endanger the health of the general public to fatten their pigs- and their bottom line. 

By feeding healthy livestock antibiotics, factory farms are attempting to head off outbreaks of disease- disease that would spread quickly amongst a population that is overcrowded, cramped, stressed, and confined.  These antibiotics also boost how quickly and how large the animals grow.

The end result?  Cheap pork for the American public.  Cheap, antibiotic-laced, possibly MRSA-infected meat.  Mmm, yummy.

Meat is not cheap.  Meat has an environmental cost, a moral cost, and now a demonstrated health cost. 

By purchasing “cheap” meat, the American public is conceding that it is okay to contribute to the growth of antibiotic-resistant superbugs; to imperil the health of the general public.  That it’s fine to quietly administer our kids antibiotics in their food, and we don’t mind if there’s antibiotics in our water either, due to factory farm runoff. 

That it’s acceptable to pen animals in reprehensible living conditions, just to satisfy the American need to eat pork chops and save a buck while doing it.

I think I’m going to do it: I’m going vegetarian (again).  The meat I prepare for my family will come from small, local farms that treat their animals like animals, not like commodities.  I vote with my dollar and I’m willing to pay a little more for a little piece of mind.  

After all, the alternative is cheap factory farmed meat that promotes antibiotic-resistance and threatens public health.  Personally, I find that to be too high a price to pay.

 

Photo Credit jere-me under Creative Commons

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Comments

  1. Pat Gardiner says

    March 18, 2009 at 12:45 am

    I have spent almost decade on this disaster, day after day: there at the beginning, with pigs and in pig country when the horror story started. We decided on a self-sufficient lifestyle and walked into a nightmare.

    There is little doubt that MRSA in pigs has been leaking into the hospitals for some years.

    There was a nasty mutation to a porcine circovirus in Britain in 1999 which caused an epidemic that required huge quantities of antibiotics to handle the consequences.

    MRSA in pigs was the result, usually the ST398 strain.

    The Dutch picked up the problem about four years ago and commendably make everything they knew public.

    Both circovirus and MRSA epidemics have now travelled the world along with accompanying cover-ups. It is quite a nasty situation – now coming to light in the USA.

    MRSA st398, mutated circovirus and various other unpleasant zoonotic diseases have now reached American pig farms.

    The people exposing the scandal in the US are to be commended.

    I have extensive records available to anyone researching the link and can often answer general questions quickly and accurately.

    —
    Regards
    Pat Gardiner
    Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
    http://www.go-self-sufficient.com and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Animals, Environment, Children and Risk says:
    September 27, 2009 at 3:59 am

    […] The concern is partly that very young children haven’t learned good hand hygiene and so are not good at washing their hands, and also that they are more prone to complications from E.coli than adults.  But there is a counter-argument being made by some health professionals that a child’s immune system is only built if it is given enough exposure to the wider world and depriving children of this kind of contact actually harms their ability to battle a range of viruses and infections. […]

    Reply

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About Eco Child’s Play

Our ethos is to provide news, information, and opinions on natural, green parenting to help your family live a greener, healthier life! Additionally, we offer personal consulting services to help you achieve your green living goals.

Jennifer is a vegetarian, yoga teacher, gardener, hiker, teacher, and mother that has been living off-the-grid for over 20 years.

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