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Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 10/17/12
Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, announced its support today for legislation Rep. Henry Waxman intends to introduce in Congress that would help the Food and Drug Administration better understand how overuse of antibiotics in food animals is making these drugs less effective for people.
Little reliable data is currently available on the amount and type of antibiotics that are used for each category of food animal, which has hampered the FDA's ability to address this issue, the union said in a news release.
"The daily feeding of antibiotics to healthy farm animals threatens public health by making these critical medications less effective for people," said Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives for Consumers Union. "This bill will help pinpoint the extent to which antibiotics are being overused on the farm so the FDA can take appropriate action to protect public health. We need to limit the excessive use of antibiotics in animal feed if we are going to prevent them from losing their power for people."
Waxman's Delivering Antibiotic Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act aims to improve the quality of the information available to the FDA in several ways, including:
-Requiring drug manufacturers to disclose to the FDA how their antibiotics are used on the farm by determining which animals the drugs are given to and for what purpose
-Limiting this reporting requirement to food-producing animals most frequently consumed in the U.S. and to only those antibiotics that are important for human medicine
-Requiring feed mills to report on the antibiotics used in the animal feeds they sell, detailing the type and amount of drugs used, as well as their intended use (i.e. growth promotion, disease prevention, or disease control or treatment).
-Improving the timing and quality of the data publicly released by the FDAConsumers Union has urged Congress, the FDA, and some state legislatures to ban the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed.
Recently, Consumers Union launched the Meat Without Drugs campaign with the Humane Society and Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations to call on grocery stores to sell only meat raised without antibiotics – starting with Trader Joe's.
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