As some people will know, I fell into writing largely by accident, a couple of decades ago. My experiences as an author, and my prior background in marketing, persuaded me to become a literary agent.
My very first book, “Why You Don’t Need Meatâ€, was an investigation into some of the meat industry’s shadier practices, and it sold over 100,000 copies. One of the issues that concerned me (this was well before BSE) was the widespread and largely uncontrolled use of antibiotics in intensive farming.
I do find it incomprehensible that, two decades later, the pharmaceutical industry is still lobbying hard for the right to sell highly potent antibiotics (that are among medicine’s last defences against several serious human infections) on cattle. The first sentence of yesterday’s Washington Post story sums it up:
The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency’s own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous for people.
Unfortunately, it is not simply a question of trying to avoid antibiotic-laced foodstuffs (e.g. by buying organic). Without strong public health measures – that are not amenable to big-pharma lobbying or the infamous revolving door principle – none of us are safe.
