What the FDA Knew (and Hid) About Antibiotics in Animal Feed

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By Dr. Mercola

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been repeatedly (and rightfully) accused of ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to antibiotic-resistant disease, namely factory farming practices where antibiotics are routinely fed to animals to promote growth.

According to the landmark “Antibiotic Resistance Threat Report” published by the CDC1 in October 2013, two million American adults and children become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, and at least 23,000 of them die as a direct result of those infections. Even more die from complications.2  

A recent article in Rodale Magazine3 highlights what the FDA knew, and hid, about antibiotics in animal feed, thereby allowing the problem to persist and grow unchecked:

“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has known for more than a dozen years that use of antibiotics in factory farms is harmful to humans, yet the agency has taken no meaningful action to stem their use.

That's the conclusion of a new report4 from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), published after the environmental nonprofit collected data from the agency through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The data came from an internal review on the safety of feed additives belonging to penicillin and tetracycline classes of antibiotics. The review started in 2001 and ended—for unknown reasons—in 2010.

The findings: Twenty-six of the 30 drugs reviewed didn't meet safety guidelines set in 1973, and none of those drugs would meet the safety guidelines of today.” [Emphasis mine]

Why Did FDA Ignore Risk Factors from the Very Beginning?

As reported in the featured article, the FDA is supposed to look at three factors when determining the safety of an antibiotic-based feed additive.

Based on these three factors (below), the NRDC’s report5 concluded that virtually ALL feed additives containing penicillin and tetracycline antibiotics—both of which are used to treat human disease—pose a “high risk” to human health and should not be permitted:

1. The chances that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are being introduced into the food supply
2. The likelihood that people would get exposed to those bacteria
3. The consequences of what happens when people are exposed to those bacteria—would they still be able to get treated with human antibiotics?

Despite the fact that both penicillin and tetracyclines are used in human medicine, about HALF of the total sales for these two antibiotics end up in animal feed. All in all, an estimated 80 percent of total antibiotic sales in the US end up in livestock, so the impact of agricultural antibiotics on human disease is very significant indeed.

Basically, unless you’re eating organically raised meats, every single piece of meat you eat will give you a small dose of antibiotics, and this low-dosing is a major part of the problem, because when the bacteria are not killed by the antibiotic, they become stronger.

The NRDC report also found that as far back as the 1970s, when many of the antibiotics now used in feed were being reviewed for FDA approval, 18 of the 30 antibiotics were already considered “high risk” for human health, but were approved for use in animal feed anyway.

Even more shameful, there’s NO human safety data for 12 of the 30 drugs, because the drug manufacturers never submitted any safety data for them.

It’s a fair question to ask: WHY has the FDA not taken any action to remove these antibiotic-based feed additives from the market? Especially once federal investigators determined that many of them fell short of regulatory standards for protecting human health?

Antibiotic-Resistant Disease Is a Highly Lethal Man-Made Plague

Today, we’re facing an increasingly complex and dire picture, as many bacteria are developing cross-resistance; a situation where bacteria become resistant to multiple drugs, making them virtually impossible to eradicate once they infect you.

For example, some penicillin-resistant bacteria have also developed resistance to cephalosporins6—broad-spectrum antibiotics that are very important for the treatment of human infections.

According to the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), just one organism—methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA—kills more Americans each year than the combined total of emphysema, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, and homicide.7

This death toll is really just an estimate, and the real number is likely much higher. The true extent of superbug infections remains unknown because no one is tracking them—at least not in the US.

“Despite all this, the FDA has refused to withdraw approvals for any of the penicillin and tetracycline drugs that their own scientists reviewed and found risky,” Rodale states.

“NRDC filed a lawsuit against the agency in 2011 forcing it to act on a citizen's petition that requested FDA take action to limit the use of antibiotics important to human medicine. A year later, a district court ruled in their favor, but FDA appealed and the lawsuit is currently in limbo.”

FDA’s Action on Agricultural Antibiotics Is Gross Negligence

The FDA issued its pathetic guidance on agricultural antibiotics on December 11, 2013.8 However, the agency only went so far as to ask drug companies tovoluntarily restrict the use of antibiotics that are important in human medicine by excluding growth promotion in animals as a listed use on the drug label.9 This would prevent farmers from legally using antibiotics such as tetracyclines, penicillins,and azithromycin for growth promotion purposes. But  this guidance is not likely to protect your health at all, and was exactly what the drug companies were hoping for.

As previously reported by Scientific American:10

“[T]he success of the FDA’s new program depends on how many companies volunteer to change their labels over the next 90 days in alignment with the FDA cutoff period. (Companies that do change their labels will have three years to phase in the changes.) And then there are myriad questions about how this would be enforced on the farm.”

Another proposed amendment to the FDA’s animal drug regulations (the veterinary feed directive)11 would require farmers to obtain a veterinary prescription before using antibiotics in animal feed for any reason. If this amendment makes it through the comment period intact, it might have a far greater impact. Comments on the proposed rule are being accepted until March 12, 2014. (For instructions on submitting comments, please see the Federal Register page.12)

How You Can Help Stop the Spread of Antibiotic-Resistant Disease

In light of the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant disease, it would behoove you to become savvy to techniques and strategies that will not only reduce your own risk of falling victim, but also help curtail the spread of antibiotic resistance in general. While the problem of antibiotic resistance really needs to be stemmed through public policy on a nationwide level, the more people who get involved on a personal level, the better. Such strategies include:

1. Using antibiotics only when absolutely necessary. For example, antibiotics are typically unnecessary for most ear infections, and they do NOT work on viruses. They only work on bacterial infections, and even then, they’re best reserved for more serious infections.
   
   As an all-around preventive measure, make sure your vitamin D level is optimized year-round, especially during pregnancy, along with vitamin K2. A number of other natural compounds can also help boost your immune system function to help rid you of an infection, including oil of oregano, garlic, Echinacea, and high-quality colloidal silver.
   
   Manuka honey can also be used for topical applications. Clinical trials have found that Manuka honey can effectively eradicate more than 250 clinical strains of bacteria, including some resistant varieties, such as MRSA.
2. Avoiding antibacterial household products, such as antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers and wipes, etc., as these too promote antibiotic resistance.
3. Properly washing your hands with warm water and plain soap, to prevent the spreading of bacteria. Be particularly mindful of washing your hands and kitchen surfaces after handling raw meats, as about half of all meat sold in grocery stores around the US is likely to be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria.
4. Purchasing organic, antibiotic-free meats and other foods. Reducing the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a significant reason for making sure you're only eating grass-fed, organically-raised meats and animal products. Besides growing and raising your own, buying your food from responsible, high-quality, sustainable sources is your best bet, and I strongly encourage you to support the small family farms in your area. 

The FDA’s stance toward antibiotics in livestock feed is unconscionable in light of the harm it wreaks, and its weakness makes being proactive on a personal level all the more important. Quite simply, the FDA has been, and still is, supporting the profitability of large-scale factory farming at the expense of public health.

Perhaps one of the strongest messages you can send is to change how you spend your food dollars. By opting for antibiotic-free, pasture raised and finished meats, you’re actively supporting farmers who are not contributing to the man-made plague that is antibiotic-resistant disease. Avoiding antibiotics in all its forms as much as possible will further help curb the growing resistance.

The FDA said volutantary guidelines "is the most efficient and effective way to change the use of these products in animal agriculture."

NRDC attorney Avinash Kar stated, "The FDA's failure to act on its own findings about the 30 reviewed antibiotic feed additives is part of a larger pattern of delay and inaction in tackling livestock drug use that goes back four decades," Kar told Reuters.

FDA Deputy Commissioner and ex-Monsanto attorney Michael Taylor will leave quite a legacy behind.   He's not only served Monsanto and the other pesticide producers quite well, he seems to carry the same sentiment over to the antiobiotic crisis.

It would appear that Taylor's concern for human health takes a very distant back seat to industry profits.  Consider this evidence when taking advice from our federal agencies.   Who are they truly working for?

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The Health Benefits of Consuming Organ Meats

Warning. This video contains graphic hunting and dressing footage. Viewer discretion is advised.

By Dr. Mercola

The consumption of organ meats has fallen out of favor in the West, which may be a mixed blessing. Liver, kidney, heart and other animal organs from organically raised, grass-fed animals are some of the most nutrient-rich foods you can eat.

Unfortunately, that’s not how most food animals are raised these days. In today’s world of high calorie/high carbohydrate but low nutrient foods, most people would benefit greatly from adding these superfoods back into their diet.

However, I advise against eating organ meats from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The diets, veterinary drugs and living conditions of such animals are not likely to result in healthy organs, so be sure to find out where the organs came from, should you decide to pick some up at your local grocer.

Many traditional cultures and their medicine men—including Native Americans—believe that eating the organs from a healthy animal supports the organs of the eater.

For example, a traditional way of treating a person with a weak heart was to feed the person the heart of a healthy animal. Similarly, eating the brains of a healthy animal was believed to support clear thinking, and animal kidneys were fed to people suffering from urinary maladies.

There are countless reports about the success of these types of traditional practices. We can thank Dr. Weston A. Price for an enormous body of research about the health benefits of traditional diets.1

The 'Isaac Newton of Nutrition'

Dr. Weston A. Price2 was a Cleveland dentist who has been called the “Isaac Newton of Nutrition.” Dr. Price traveled all over the world studying the dietary practices of healthy people from traditional cultures.

What he found was that nearly every culture placed a high value on consuming animals in their entirety, making use of the organs, blood, bones, and everything else—a far cry from Western culinary snobbery, which pretty much limits animal foods to muscle tissue and nothing else.

Traditional preparations involve a good deal of work in terms of cleaning, trimming, soaking, pounding and so on because membranes, blood vessels and other inedible parts must be removed from animal organs before they can be consumed, requiring significant time and labor. Why did they bother with all of this work?

They knew that eating these organs would support the natural functioning of their bodies. And they were right—the nutritional benefits of organ meats are now being confirmed by modern science.

Organ meat is a nutritional powerhouse, loaded with vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other compounds vital to your health. Liver in particular is packed with nutrients, which is why predatory animals eat it first and why it has been so highly prized throughout history.

Unfortunately, organ meats have been unfairly demonized in the West thanks to some persistent dietary myths, including beliefs that animal fat and cholesterol are bad for your health. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Dr. Price, who studied this extensively, found that native cultures who maintained traditional diets—whole foods from plants and animals—had excellent teeth and were free of the chronic diseases plaguing society today. They experienced very little cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental illness, or even birth defects.3 But why? What accounts for such drastic health differences?

Traditional versus Contemporary Diets

When Dr. Price analyzed and compared the nutrient value of foods eaten by traditional versus modern cultures, he found that a traditional diet provided at least four times the water-soluble vitamins, calcium and other minerals, and at least 10 times the fat-soluble vitamins, such as A and D.

These fat-soluble vitamins are present only in animal fats—butter, lard, egg yolks, fish oils, and foods with fat-rich cellular membranes such as liver and other organ meats. Of course, these are the foods now shunned by Westerners as unhealthful. Is it any wonder that adopting a modern diet spells disaster for your health?

The Offal Truth

The consumable parts of an animal that are not skeletal muscle are called offal, which literally means “off fall,” or the pieces that fall off a carcass when it’s butchered. This includes the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, pancreas and all other abdominal organs, as well as the tails, feet, brains, tongue, and yes, even the testicles.4

In the US, the term “organ meats” is more commonly used, and when these parts come from birds, they are usually referred to as giblets.5 Sweetbreads refer to the thymus gland or pancreas of a young cow, lamb or pig.

In nature, most animals go straight for the organs of their prey, saving the muscle meats for later. This is because animals instinctively know that organ meats are the densest source of nutrition. In fact, organs are the superfoods of the animal kingdom. This is why “glandulars,”6 supplements made from dried tissues of animal organs and glands, pack some powerful therapeutic punches when taken under the guidance of a skilled medical practitioner.

Organ Meats: The Superfoods of the Animal World

Organ meats offer a rich mélange of nutrients your body needs for optimal function, in concentrations hard to find anywhere else. The most significant ones are outlined in the following table.7

High quality protein	B complex, including B12 and folate (folic acid)	Minerals, including a highly bioavailable form of iron
Fats (especially omega-3 fats8)	Choline (another B vitamin, important for cell membranes, brain and nerve function, heart health, and prevention of birth defects)9	Trace minerals such as copper, zinc and chromium
Cholesterol10	CoQ10 (essential for energy production and cardiac function; potent antioxidant; animal hearts offer the highest levels of coQ10)	Vitamin D
Vitamin E (circulation, tissue repair, healing, deactivation of free radicals, slowing aging)	Pre-formed vitamin A (retinol)	An unidentified “anti-fatigue factor”
Purines11 (nitrogen containing compounds serving as precursors to DNA and RNA)	Vitamin K2	Amino acids

The Discovery of “Fat-Soluble Activators”

One of Dr. Price’s most significant contributions to nutrition science was the concept of fat-soluble activators, which serve as potent catalysts for mineral absorption. Without them, minerals cannot by used by your body, no matter how plentiful they may be in your diet. Dr. Price was quite ahead of his time—modern research has since validated most of his findings.

Dr. Price identified three primary fat-soluble activators: vitamins A and D, and one he called “Activator X,” because he didn’t know exactly what it was, only that it was present in certain fatty parts of animals (especially the organ meats) that fed on young green growing plants or microorganisms, as well as in oily fish and shellfish. This powerful nutrient is now believed to be vitamin K2, a nutrient that is far more important than most people realize.12, 13

Vitamin D, is required for mineral metabolism, healthy bones, optimal nervous system function, muscle tone, reproductive health, insulin production, and protection from depression14 and every type of chronic illness, from cancer to heart disease. Vitamin D’s list of benefits keeps growing with each passing year. However, it’s important to realize that these nutrients are dependent on the animal having been raised and fed in a natural manner. As stated by the Weston A. Price Foundation:15

“The vital roles of these fat-soluble vitamins and the high levels found in the diets of healthy traditional peoples confirm the importance of pasture-feeding livestock. If domestic animals are not consuming green grass, vitamins A and K will be largely missing from their fat, organ meats, butterfat and egg yolks; if the animals are not raised in the sunlight, vitamin D will be largely missing from these foods.”

Vitamin A Myth-Busting

Impressively abundant in organ meats from pastured animals, Vitamin A is a catalyst for multiple biochemical processes. Vitamin A is vital for prevention of birth defects, prevention of infection, hormone production, optimal thyroid function, good digestion, good vision, and healthy bones and blood. Without it, your body cannot utilize protein, minerals and water-soluble vitamins. Vitamin A is also an antioxidant that helps protect you from pollutants, free radicals, and cancer.

Contrary to what many vegetarians believe, the type of vitamin A obtained from plants (carotene) is much different than the animal-derived form. Carotenes from vibrantly colored fruits and vegetable are  a great antioxidant and can be converted into true vitamin A in your upper intestine, but many people are unable to convert it, especially if their diets contain insufficient fat.

Dr. Price discovered that the diets of traditional peoples contained at least 10 times more vitamin A from animal sources than found in the American diet of his day. That difference may be even starker now, as his research was done decades ago.

When people began taking synthetic vitamin A supplements, we began to see vitamin A toxicity. But this does not happen with natural vitamin A from real, whole foods. Therefore, the advice to refrain from organ meats during pregnancy is unfounded. It is best to obtain your vitamin A from natural sources like yellow butter, egg yolks, and organ meats.

Please realize that antibiotics, laxatives, fat substitutes and cholesterol-lowering drugs interfere with vitamin-A absorption. Another common myth is that organ meats cause gout. This is a warped, oversimplified misinterpretation of the biochemical processes that lead to gout.16 Gout results from a buildup of uric acid, which is more a function of insulin resistance related to overconsumption of refined carbohydrates and sugar. Uric acid is a byproduct of your body’s metabolism of dietary sugar—especially fructose.

Excess dietary protein with insufficient dietary fat may also raise your risk for gout. This is why lean meats should not be consumed without adding a healthful fat, and the leaner organ meats (such as the heart and liver) are no exception. The one nutrient most protective against gout is vitamin A, because it helps protect your kidneys—healthy kidneys prevent the buildup of uric acid by excreting it in your urine. Therefore, organ meats actually protect you from gout, rather than cause it.

Liver—Nature’s Most Concentrated Source of Vitamin A

Liver is the most commonly consumed organ meat in the US—and for good reason: it’s one of the most nutrient-dense foods in existence. Liver is held sacred by many African tribes, and practically every cuisine has liver specialties. It simply contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food:17

• Liver is nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A (retinol)
• It contains an abundant, highly usable form of iron
• Three ounces of beef liver contains almost three times as much choline as one egg
• Liver is one of the best sources of copper, folic acid, cholesterol, and purines
• It also contains a mysterious “anti-fatigue factor,” making it a favorite among athletes

The liver is often described as an organ that “filters” your blood of toxins, which may seem concerning in terms of eating it. In reality, laboratory analysis has proven that liver is actually completely safe for consumption and has no higher concentration of toxins than the rest of the body. This is due to the fact that your liver is not really a “filter,” but more of a chemical processing plant, rendering toxins inert and shuttling them out of your body. If your liver contains large amounts of toxins, so do you! And the same goes for the animals you consume. What this means is, the cleaner the animal whose organs you are consuming, the cleaner your food will be, whether it’s a steak or an organ.18

IMPORTANT: Know Where Your Meat Comes From

In another article19 written by a meat processor, Bob Martin explains the differences between products derived from grain-fed animals versus from grass-fed animals. He reports that many grain-finished livers are “condemned,” whereas this does not happen with grass-finished livers. He is very straight in his recommendation to avoid meat and organs coming from animals that are grain-fed or grain-finished, such as those produced by CAFOs.

As stated earlier, it is safest to restrict all of your meats to pastured, or at the very least, grass-finished animals. In the wake ofmad cow disease, it is particularly important to consume animals raised on pasture and fed a biologically appropriate diet, which virtually eliminates their risk of mad cow disease, as well as many other dangerous contaminants.20

Recipes and Other Offal Resources

If you haven’t been eating organ meats lately, perhaps you abandoned them because they were thrust upon you as a child, or maybe you’ve never been able to get past their appearance. They look like entrails because they ARE entrails, which are difficult to disguise. You just may have to get over it... for the sake of your health!  Fortunately, organ meats don’t have to be the tough, dried out, overcooked liver-and-onions of yesteryear that were more like shoe leather than meat.

Finding good organ meat recipes can be somewhat of a challenge, as they are more of a niche specialty today—but they are out there. In order to make your journey a bit easier, I’ve assimilated a list of resources to perhaps inspire you into trying some new things. The following are merely a starting point—I’m sure you can find others. Paleo recipe websites often have interesting and unique organ meat recipes, and there are an abundance of those. Happy hunting!

• An article called “The Liver Files” on the Weston Price website has great nutrition information about liver, as well as liver recipes from around the world17
• Sally Fallon gives a big thumbs up to a cookbook devoted to organ meats, The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, by Fergus Henderson.21
• Chris Kresser’s article “How to Eat More Organ Meats” contains nutritional information as well as links to a number of recipes, by organ type.22
• Chef Chris Cosentino’s website Offal Good is completely devoted to “everything offal” and is an interesting read, includingrecipes, videos, and offal photos NOT for the faint of heart—but perfect for the culinarily curious! (Chef Cosentino is featured in the video at the top of this article.)
• Huffington Post offers a few select recipes for offal food.23
• Food & Wine gives some tips for “Nose to Tail Cooking.”
• For the nutritional composition of organ meats, I found a couple of resources. The Self Nutrition Data site is a good resource for comparing nutrient levels of many foods, including organ meats. And an online publication called “Nutritional Composition of Red Meat” from the University of Wollongong (Australia) has charts with all sorts of nutritional data for red meats, including organ meats and wild game.

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• Inside Look at Sustainable Farming in America
• FDA Sued, Forced to Remove Safety Status on Trans Fats
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Tell Tyson to Stop Torturing Pigs

For three weeks I lived a lie to expose the truth while working undercover at a Tyson hog factory farm in Oklahoma. What I saw was a living nightmare.

Thousands of pregnant pigs spent nearly their entire lives crammed into cages so small they could barely move. They couldn’t turn around, walk or even lie down comfortably.

 I saw pigs with open wounds and bloody pressure sores from rubbing against the bars of their metal cages or lying on hard concrete.

Pigs would constantly ram their heads against their tiny stalls or spend hour after hour, day after day, biting the bars of their cages out of frustration.

 These intelligent and social animals were literally driven mad in these hellish conditions.

I also saw workers violently slamming piglets headfirst into the concrete and leaving them to suffer and slowly die.

 Some of the piglets were spiked against the ground like footballs.

 I found one piglet still conscious and breathing in a pile of dead piglets. Nobody bothered to make sure she was dead before just throwing her away.

Piglets had their tails cut off and their testicles ripped out of their bodies without any painkillers.

 Sick and injured pigs with severe, bleeding wounds or infections were left to languish without veterinary care.

I saw workers gouge the eyes of pigs, violently hit them with wooden boards, and in one case, even throw a heavy bowling ball at a pig’s head.

 Such sadistic cruelty was widespread at this Tyson factory farm.While this brutality and neglect is shocking,

 I think the worst abuse these animals endure is being immobilized in tiny, maggot-infested gestation crates.

 Animal welfare experts around the world agree that these crates are inherently cruel and should be phased out. In fact, gestation crates are so cruel they have been banned in nine U.S. states, as well as in the entire European Union.

Responding to consumer concerns, nearly every major food provider in the country, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Safeway, Kroger, Kmart and Costco, have demanded their suppliers do away with these cruel crates.

Major pork producers, such as Smithfield and Hormel, have committed to phasing out gestation crates, and Cargill is already 50 percent crate-free.

But not Tyson.

Tyson continues to torture pigs by cramming them in cages barely larger than their own bodies for nearly their entire lives.

Thank you.

"Pete"

Undercover Investigator

Okay, so exactly where is Animal Control or any of the animal rights groups here on this?  Why are they ignoring these kinds of issues but making issues out of areas that are not real issues at all against regular people?  Because it's all a smoke screen?  The above is the reason we are supposed to have animal rights groups.  Bottom line here is we are talking about food.  We should be taking better care of the stock of food we eat.  There is no reason to torture pigs, in fact it's unhealthy for us that we do so as it does cause a contamination of our food supply.  

  The answer here is simple.  Never buy Tyson pork products.  Put them out of the pork business.  It's not up to government to do something about this.  It's up to the people who are informed to vote with our dollars the correct way.  If you support this kind of behavior, buy Tyson pork.  If you do not support this kind of behavior, do not buy Tyson anything.  Constitutional law prevents the government from getting involved here, but they do it anyway.  Government is not supposed to recognize groups of any form, yet we all know that this right of the people has been well usurped.  That does not mean we are still not in control.  Again, do not buy Tyson products if you do not support this kind of behavior.

  

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• Gloucester, VA Animal Control In Violation of it's Own Ordinances?
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