Alternatives to antibiotics in farming

Watch Video: Alternatives to antibiotics in farming by Gary Hirshberg, ...
Alternatives to antibiotics in farming | Kids in the House
KidsInTheHouse the Ultimate Parenting Resource
Kids in the House Tour

Alternatives to antibiotics in farming

Comment
46
Like
46
Transcription: 
No one would disagree that antibiotics are one of the great inventions of modern kind. That it has saved Ms and Ms of lives, and that the strategic and tactical use of antibiotics when you're getting sick is a very powerful aid for all of us. The problem is now we've introduced these into our food supply prophylactically or preventatively. What that means is even the feed these animals are getting in these large feed lots are now laced or have antibiotics built in. And the reason is we're now growing our animals in a way nature never intended. We're growing them in feed lots, where there's nothing natural. In the case of cows, for example, in conventional what's known as feed lot farms, you'll see the animals up to their knees in manure in these lots, eating only corn. Now these are herbivores. They're supposed to eat grasses. But they're being fed corn. So in these close quarters, if one animal gets sick, then the whole herd could get sick. And so what we have done in our infinite wisdom, and I'm doing this because it's really crazy, is we've added antibiotics so that in case they get sick, then this would prevent them from getting sick. The problem is in nature if you introduce something like antibiotics all over the place, the bugs and viruses don't wait around to do focus groups to figure out what to do .They just quickly mutate. And so we're seeing a big problem with antibiotic resistance. The overuse and prolific use of preventative or prophylactic antibiotics has led to an enormous amount of antibiotic resistant organisms. So as a parent, just to make this really simple, you know that antibiotics can be your friend. But they will not be your friend if you overuse them. It's the same with pesticides. if we overuse them, the pests are going to become resistant. And unfortunately as humans, we don't seem to realize that we're part of a system. We're not able to impose our will on nature. We have to really be part of it. Which means we should be using antibiotics when the animal gets sick. Now in organic dairying, parents will be happy to know that antibiotics are never allowed. If an animal gets sick, you can't just give her antibiotics and put her back in the herd. If she gets sick, you have to take her out of the herd, period. You're never allowed to bring that animal back in if you used antibiotics. So again this is a case where organic can give you real peace of mind that there's no antibiotics in the supply chain. It's not passing through the milk or the meat into your child.

Watch Video: Alternatives to antibiotics in farming by Gary Hirshberg, ...

Transcript

Expert Bio

More from Expert

Gary Hirshberg

Gary Hirshberg is Chairman of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s leading organic yogurt producer, and Managing Director of Stonyfield Europe. He is also the Chairman and Founding Partner of “Just Label It, We Have the Right to Know,” the national campaign to label GE foods. Gary has received twelve honorary doctorates and numerous awards for corporate and environmental leadership including a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award by the US EPA.

Avoiding Chemicals and Toxins
More Parenting Videos from Gary Hirshberg >
Enter your email to
download & subscribe
to our newsletter