The result would be the loss of one of the most valuable tools producers have to keep our food supple safe and healthy. Abandoning the use of antibiotics in food producing animals would create a major threat to the quality and quantity of meat production, presenting the potential for spread of serious food borne illnesses, including E. Coli and Salmonella. Did you know, humans are more likely to become ill from the consumption of contaminated meat than to encounter antibiotic resistant bacteria? Antibiotics are used in food producing animals to limit the risk of cross contamination in meat- the transfer of harmful Micro-Organisms from one surface to another (Food Poisoning). These illnesses can not only kill animals, but also contaminate other meat sources during processing and preparation. Consider what happens when meat comes in contact with the bacteria of the contaminated intestines of an animal that is being processed or is shipped in water that contains animals or human waste. Illness is spread. I would must rather eat the meat of an animal that may have been treated with antibiotics knowing there is the assurance of the withdrawal period, than to trust the label of antibiotic free meat that could possibly carry …show more content…
America currently has the most abundant and affordable food supply on Earth. Less than 7 percent of the money we spend goes to buy food, the lowest of any country that keeps such data ( ). It is my opinion that with the elimination of antibiotics, producers would drastically lose animals to common illnesses. Farmers, both livestock and grain would suffer from a shift in supply and demand, and we would all directly feel the impact at the grocery store checkout. Public concern would immediately shift to sky rocketing meat prices. And what’s more, there would be no significant effect on human antibiotic resistance. This was proven in 1999 when Demark chose to ban the use of antibiotics in food producing animals as a test to see if it would use humans safer and healthier. What followed was an increase in sick and dead animals that required veterinarians to use antibiotics to treat the outbreaks, yet there was no documented improvement in human antibiotic