Sunday, February 10

 
Poultry Farmers Quietly Begin to Reduce Antibiotics

In what looks like a victory for health activists and supporters of organic food, the United States' three largest poultry producers have begun cutting back on the amount of antibiotics they use to keep their flocks healthy. The three are Tyson, Perdue and Foster Farms which, according to a story in the Sunday New York Times, produce about a third of the chicken Americans eat. The story pits the traditional assertions by poultry farmers that antibiotics are needed to treat sick chickens and to keep the whole flock healthy and are used responsibly. The anti-antibiotics advocates say that widespread use of antibiotics leads to the creation of resistant genes in both chickens and the humans who eat them. The cutback is the start, but not the solution, because other problems still exist, according to this story, written with depth and even-handedness by food writer Marian Burros.
posted by Unknown 12:19 PM