Help America’s Farmers Fight Big Food! Tell the FDA to Reign in Antibiotics
Taking on corporate power for America’s farmers, families, and the future of our food…
For the past 18 months dairy farmers in America have faced their worst crisis since the Great Depression. Since December 2008, the price they are paid for their milk has dropped more than 50%. At the same time, giant dairy processors have raked in record profits while dairy farmers are losing their farms.
This problem has been caused by excessive concentration, which offers farmers little choice where they can sell their milk. As a result of this economic crisis several farmers have taken their own lives in the face of crushing debt with no clear hope of resolution. Farmers need your voice today.
Please ckick to stand with them!
Antibiotic Overkill…
Did you know that up to 70 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are fed to poultry or livestock to compensate for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions?
The FDA is accepting comments on a rule that could make it easier to feed antibiotics to healthy food animals – a rule that will weaken the already-lenient controls on the use of antibiotics in food animal production. The new rule affects the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD), a program allowing veterinarians to prescribe antibiotics mixed into animal feed in new ways. Currently, the VFD ensures that for those new antibiotic uses, a diagnosis is made before animals are given antibiotics in their feed.
Many industrial farms routinely feed antibiotics to poultry or livestock to compensate for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, while promoting growth. Proposed changes to the VFD could weaken oversight that prevents unnecessary drug use – increasing the rate of antibiotic resistance in humans.
Up to 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are fed to healthy food animals. Weakening the VFD could breed dangerous new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans thus making these important drugs we depend on useless.
Send your comment now! Tell the FDA to protect human and animal health by rejecting this rule and saving antibiotics.
