Perhaps you have realized that our world is suffering from the presence of humanity´s way of life. One thing we didn´t talked about in class was the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry.
Have you heard its use is to produce cheap food? Anyone that has heard about that in many countries much of the same antibiotics used for human health care is also used for animals in commercial agriculture? Do you know that organisms here on earth are trying to adapt to substances such as poison and other active substances hindering their life? Do you know the consequence is resistance?
I can tell you that the same thing goes for bacterial exposure to antibiotics as well. Perhaps we can skip the whole biochemical class right now concerning the factors that explain the buildup of resistance in organisms, as within us, about say plasmids in the bacteria.
I you wonder about what most of the antibiotics contribute with for the production it´s not in a global scope to keep the animals healthy in a clinical sense. It´s to maintain the best possible weight gain by the animals which in a global competition gives the farmer an upper hand.
So to not fall down into a world of constant disease and freaky looking anomalies of not least the epidermal tissues, what need to be done at an agricultural level to avoid that doom?
Well I can tell that there are mainly two ways. One is to adapt the production to the outstanding animal health system we have in the Swedish production. Sweden has shown so many other countries it is possible to cut down almost 100 percent of antibiotics used in animal production.
The other just as important, if not of equal importance is falling onto the rest of the society; to pay what it cost to produce in a sustainable manner. As of now many farmers in the commercial agriculture has subsidies as you may have heard about. This in turn came among other factors from the demand of cheap food. Perhaps you can feel how this sinister loop just took us back right to the start of this discussion of antibiotics in commercial animal husbandry?
If we want to continue living in the way we do we need to invest in animal husbandry in many ways. Next time you go to the store, don´t buy the cheapest alternative just because you can! Just a tip for your own health.
/Until next time