MRSA (Methcillin Resistant Staph Areus) is on the rise in many communities. This is because doctors give out way too many antibiotics and it is causing resistant strains of bacterial infections to develop. This disease is hard to treat because it is resistant to easy antibiotics and only the more expensive antibiotics will treat it. Or that is the dogma we hear. Just one thing gets in the way of that story...the facts.
Almost all of the meat in America is now produced on factory farms. The animals in these places are in severely overcrowded and stressed conditions. The result is that in order to keep the animals healthy enough to make it to slaughter the animals are maintained on antibiotics.
A recent Dutch study showed that pig farmers are 760 times more likely to be colonized with MRSA than the rest of the population. The MRSA in the community has certain protein markers on its cell membrane. These markers can be used like a finger print. The markers indicate that the MRSA in the Netherlands communities is traceable back to the pig farms.
A group in Canada started taking pork chops off of the shelf at the local grocery store. Nine percent of the local pork was contaminated by MRSA.
Maybe we really do not need that much pork. Maybe a little less pork grown in better circumstances so that antibiotics are not necessary is the way to go. In fact there is just such a bill in Congress right now and we can’t get it out of committee.
Check out Keep Antibiotics Working . And call your Congressman at 202-224-3121 and tell him/her that you would prefer your meat without MRSA.
My thanks again to Dr. Wallinga for his very insightful talk at the Nutrition and Health Conference held this week. You can see more of his work at Health Observatory
Also:
"Would you like a side of edamame with that Mc Salmon Burger?"
Since yesterday was the "great debate", my last Urgent! Post got missed. You still have time to call your Congress person about the Farm Bill and fix our ailing food system.