Pointing Fingers

The overuse of antibiotics in livestock is clearly a worldwide issue. We have farmers who need to produce more meat to pay the bills, while thousands of people die every year from what used to not be such serious diagnoses like C. Difficile and Neisseria Gonorrhea. These super bugs that are being created by this vicious cycle is going to lead to a post-antibiotic era where scratching your knee could lead to death.

So, who’s to blame? The Americans who don’t take their entire dosage of antibiotics because they feel a little better? The doctor’s who over prescribe antibiotics to people who really don’t need them?  The farmers that give only a small dosage of antibiotics to their livestock that aren’t even sick? The lack of responsibility the FDC has taken to stop the overuse of antibiotics period even though knowing what the consequences are? The answer is clear. The entire community is at fault to leading to a period as fragile as this one.

It’s mind blowing that we did this to ourselves. It’s like knowing that cigarettes will eventually kill you, but you still smoke them anyway. It’s the addiction that tells us to keep with that habit. It’s also greed that has the pharmaceutical companies at a halt for finding new and better antibiotics. It’s greed that has farmers giving larger and larger quantities of antibiotics to their animals. It’s ignorance and instant gratification that lead to people not taking the full amount of antibiotics prescribed because they feel better.

 So when will it change? When can we make that push to a healthier long living life?  How about now? Sign the petition to ban the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals.