So what’s the reason farmers are using to not stop using antibiotics and growth hormones? If you have bought beef at the grocery store recently, you already know the answer. Beef prices are at an all-time high and the profits for beef producers are too sweet to begin thinking about going all-natural or organic.
The massive droughts in Texas and California in 2014 brought the nation’s cattle herds to its lowest in six decades. Last year, beef prices reached all-time highs, with consumers paying a record $6.16 a pound on average for fresh beef. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this was an increase of over 11 percent from the previous year, says the Wall Street Journal.
Interestingly, the poultry industry has listened to consumers and acted. Companies like Perdue Farms Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc are producing more antibiotic-free chicken, and in March, McDonalds Corp. announced their plans to curtail the use of antibiotics in its poultry in the U.S.
While beef from cattle grass fed and raised antibiotic-free fetch higher selling prices, ranging from 30 to 80 percent higher than conventional beef, farmers using the traditional methods say it would cost too much to switch over because it is costly and will take longer to generate any returns. In the U.S. today, antibiotic-free beef accounts for only five percent of all beef sales.
Livestock specialists say beef cattle usually live 16 to 18 months before slaughter. This length of time leaves them more exposed to disease, while chickens only live about six weeks. They also point out that beef producers have little control over how the cattle are raised. Beef producers buy cattle from a large number of producers and middlemen while poultry farmers usually have a signed contract with poultry processors to supply that company alone.
Beef producers also cite the added paperwork needed to show compliance with animal welfare, sustainability and other standards required by beef buyers and federal labeling rules they would have to deal with if they went antibiotic-free as another reason for balking at embracing the method. As an afterthought, they add that cattle are fed a corn-heavy diet, and it’s less expensive than grass.
What about antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the latest FDA rules?
Digital Journal reported that the FDA’s final rule for its Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) was published on June 2, 2015. It is supposed to take effect in December 2016. The rule is part of a broader initiative by the federal government to curb the use of antibiotics in animals and humans, as well.
The issue of overuse of antibiotics in animals and humans is actually a global problem, and one that the UK has recently tackled. In the U.S., according to the CDC, drug-resistant bacteria is responsible for more than two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths every year.
In the UK, as reported in Digital Journal in August, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) started a public consultation on how to assess the risks of antimicrobial resistance passing from food animals to humans. The consultation ended on August 31. It will be very interesting to read the results when they are compiled.
So the stage is set for a war of words between cattlemen and the FDA over whether or not consumers will ever see compliance with the new antibiotic-use rules. It leaves me to wonder if it will take a serious outbreak of some kind of antibiotic-resistant bug before people get serious about what we are putting in our bodies.
