In the face of rising scientific evidence over the dangers of the use of low-level antibiotics as growth promoting agents and disease preventers in the agricultural industry, the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) resolution on Animal Antibiotic Use states that these suggestions are not based on sound science. Yet, just recently, the World Health Organization found that the use of antibiotics to promote growth can be reduced, if not eliminated, citing Danish practice as a model. ALEC's resolution cites data that suggests that only 40% of the antibiotics administered in this country go toward the agricultural industry, even though more recent estimates put that number as high as 70%. Although the ALEC resolution mentions that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are developing guidelines for the use of antibiotics in agriculture, it neglects to mention that these same agencies have recently denounced the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics. Even though antibiotic resistance is primarily caused by humans, their overuse in the agricultural sector is part of the problem. The agricultural sector is based on an industrial model, which promotes unsanitary conditions for animal rearing and slaughter. Rather than improve the conditions, farmers are forced to depend on antibiotics to keep the animals healthy. The elimination of low-level antibiotics in animal feed is not an unnecessary legislative or regulatory action, as ALEC describes it, but one that is a common sense approach to using drugs routinely prescribed for human use.

Ran 12/8/2003