And when the FDA tried to ban cephalosporins in 2008, one type of antibiotic crucial for treating salmonella in children, it became apparent just what Kennedy was up against. Two months after the FDA announced a hearing about a cephalosporin "Order of Prohibition" in agriculture, the regulatory action had morphed into a "Hearing to Review the Advances In Animal Health Within The Livestock Industry" thanks to lobbyists from the egg, chicken, turkey, milk, pork and cattle industries.
"Order of Prohibition"... "Hearing to Review the Advances In Animal Health Within The Livestock Industry," same idea, right?
At the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry hearings, the National Turkey Federation's Michael Rybolt defended antibiotics as a cost savings to consumers. "The increased costs to raise turkeys without antibiotics is real," he said. "Today at retail outlets here in the D.C. market, a conventionally raised turkey costs $1.29 per pound. A similar whole turkey that was produced without antibiotics costs $2.29 per pound. With the average consumer purchasing a 15 pound whole turkey, that would mean there would be $15 tacked on to their grocery bill."
Conventionally grown turkeys are even a better deal when you consider the cost of antibiotics!
And, antibiotic-based turkey farming is downright green, said Rybolt, calling 227 acre turkey operations, "small family farms." Without them, more land would be needed to grow crops and house the animals because of the "decrease in density." And, with 175,550 more tons of feed needed, there would be "an increase in manure."
When the FDA capitulated to industry and turned the cephalosporin prohibition into a salute to animal "advances," former Kansas governor and former dairyman John Carlin, asked, "What changed in less than five months? Certainly the problem hasn't gone away."
This month, the FDA also rejected petitions to ban human antibiotics like penicillins, tetracyclines and sulfonamides in livestock filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Environmental Defense, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), and the Union of Concerned scientists, some filed over 12 years ago. Why? "FDA cannot withdraw approval of a new animal drug until the legally-mandated process," said an FDA spokesman. The process includes an "evidentiary hearing," perhaps like the cephalosporin advances.
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