The Future: six drivers of global change Part 97

Ibid.

176 the FDA formed a new task force

Stephanie Yao, "New FDA Task Force Will Support Innovation in Antibacterial Drug Development," Food and Drug Administration press release, September 24, 2012.

177 in spite of these basic medical facts, many governments

Worldwatch Inst.i.tute, "Global Meat Production and Consumption Continue to Rise," 2011, http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise-1; Philip K. Thornton, "Livestock Production: Recent Trends, Future Prospects," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, September 27, 2010.

178 including, shockingly, the United States government

"Meat on Drugs," Consumer Reports.

179 but the impact on profits is very clear and sizable

Matthew Perrone, "Does Giving Antibiotics to Animals Hurt Humans?," a.s.sociated Press, April 20, 2012.

180 superbugs that are immune to the impact of antibiotics

Ibid.

181 the antibiotics are given in subtherapeutic doses

"Our Big Pig Problem," Scientific American, February 8, 2012.

182 not princ.i.p.ally used for the health of the livestock anyway Harris, "U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock."

183 dispute the science while handing out campaign contributions

Ibid.; 2012 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets, http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00028787&cycle=2012, accessed August 22, 2012; National Cattlemen's Beef a.s.sociation lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?t.i.tle=National_Cattlemen's_Beef_a.s.sociation#cite_note-1, August 22, 2012.

184 Last year, scientists confirmed that

Richard Knox, "How Using Antibiotics in Animal Feed Creates Superbugs," NPR, February 21, 2012, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/21/147190101/how-using-antibiotics-in-animal-feed-creates-superbugs.

185 have thus far been successful in preventing a ban

Harris, "U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock."

186 until recently, a regulation limiting this insane practice

Ibid.

187 European Union has already banned antibiotics in livestock feed

Knox, "How Using Antibiotics in Animal Feed Creates Superbugs."

188 but in a number of other countries

Ibid.; "Meat on Drugs," Consumer Reports; Worldwatch Inst.i.tute, "Global Meat Production and Consumption Continue to Rise"; Thornton, "Livestock Production."

189 only one of many bacteria that are now becoming resistant

Knox, "How Using Antibiotics in Animal Feed Creates Superbugs."

190 mad cow disease

"Bill Seeks Permanent Ban on Downer Slaughter at Meat Plants," Food Safety News, January 13, 2012.

191 infected by the pathogen (a misfolded protein, or prion) that causes the disease

World Health Organization, "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy," November 2002, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs113/en/.

192 Animals with later stages of the disease

I. Ramasamy, M. Law, S. Collins, and F. Brook, "Organ Distribution of Prion Proteins in Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease," Lancet Infectious Diseases 3, no. 4 (April 2003): 21422.