Tbh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen hormone treated milk for sale in the US. They always say “not treated with rbst”, then have the disclaimer that rbst does not produce significantly different milk.
I just assumed the hormone treated cow milk was used for making industrial foods like cheezit cheese or something.
“Bang on in the middle” of the legend, but not of the data. And below the middle of the legend, actually. The bottom half of the legend covers 0 - 50 while the top half covers 50 - 200+. The US is at 31 mg/kg as of 2020
It’s pretty clear to me. 50 is there safe threshold as mentioned, everything below is safe, marked as blue and everything above is dangerous, marked as increasingly darker red. Looks quite nice and gets the point across imo.
It’s impossible to use 0 unless you just want to let animals die from and spread infections. We live in a world in which bacteria and animals have been in an evolutionary arms race for a billion years
I feel like we shouldn’t be eating meat if we have to jump through so much shit to “make it work”. Putting increasing your tolerance to antibiotics on the top of the cake and it’s a no go for health reasons alone.
But we don’t have to jump through so much shit to make it work. We use science to treat or eliminate health issues in animals that existed well before modern medicine, or even before domestication. Be clear I’m not talking about the horrors of factory farming, but about veterinary medicine. People suffered before modern medicine too, but we’ve reduced mortality by a ton
There are differences with using antibiotics to make something work and to lower infection rates. China has 200+mg of Antibiotics usage. This is a clear case of using Antibiotics to make meat production possible, because theres no way you need this many antibiotics without some deep rooted problems. The US has A fraction of this. I don’t want to decline that, especially in bigger farms, antibiotics are used to make it work(at least partially), but I would guess that its often really just to treat sick animals.
31mg is weak for a grown adult human. That means the average shows widespread low-level use OR high volumes for very low numbers, which is how it’s supposed to be when a patient has poor circulation from a lack of motion.
This is an average across the entire industry, not an indication of the dosage given to a single animal. Some animals will be on none, and others will be on a clinically appropriate dose as necessary
If you constantly eat meat with antibiotics in you’re increasing your tolerance to antibiotics no matter the amount. So when you actually need antibiotics they’re going to do fuck all for you
A) “You” as in your mammalian cells don’t care about (most) antibiotics. Your intestinal microbiome does, however. But it doesn’t exactly get resistant.
B) Antibiotica used in medicine are generally reserved for medical purposes. High usage in agriculture is not pretty, sure, and certainly won’t help multi-resistant pathogen issues, but your statement is wrong regardless.
The is is interesting. I thought the US would be much higher. Though doesn’t surprise me to see china so high up
Survey was for antibiotics not steroids
Ah - that was why I was so confused. Canada, for example, limits the growth hormone in dairy cattle while the US does not.
Hormone-free milk is widely available in the US, it just costs a little more
Canadian milk also costs a little more in comparison.
Tbh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen hormone treated milk for sale in the US. They always say “not treated with rbst”, then have the disclaimer that rbst does not produce significantly different milk.
I just assumed the hormone treated cow milk was used for making industrial foods like cheezit cheese or something.
Light blue is bang on in the middle so it’s still quite a lot.
“Bang on in the middle” of the legend, but not of the data. And below the middle of the legend, actually. The bottom half of the legend covers 0 - 50 while the top half covers 50 - 200+. The US is at 31 mg/kg as of 2020
Good point I feel like this graphic could use some improvements tbh 🧐
It’s perfect because it generated discussion!
It’s pretty clear to me. 50 is there safe threshold as mentioned, everything below is safe, marked as blue and everything above is dangerous, marked as increasingly darker red. Looks quite nice and gets the point across imo.
31mg too much
It’s impossible to use 0 unless you just want to let animals die from and spread infections. We live in a world in which bacteria and animals have been in an evolutionary arms race for a billion years
I feel like we shouldn’t be eating meat if we have to jump through so much shit to “make it work”. Putting increasing your tolerance to antibiotics on the top of the cake and it’s a no go for health reasons alone.
But we don’t have to jump through so much shit to make it work. We use science to treat or eliminate health issues in animals that existed well before modern medicine, or even before domestication. Be clear I’m not talking about the horrors of factory farming, but about veterinary medicine. People suffered before modern medicine too, but we’ve reduced mortality by a ton
Antibiotics can be good, actually
Yes
There are differences with using antibiotics to make something work and to lower infection rates. China has 200+mg of Antibiotics usage. This is a clear case of using Antibiotics to make meat production possible, because theres no way you need this many antibiotics without some deep rooted problems. The US has A fraction of this. I don’t want to decline that, especially in bigger farms, antibiotics are used to make it work(at least partially), but I would guess that its often really just to treat sick animals.
31mg is weak for a grown adult human. That means the average shows widespread low-level use OR high volumes for very low numbers, which is how it’s supposed to be when a patient has poor circulation from a lack of motion.
This is an average across the entire industry, not an indication of the dosage given to a single animal. Some animals will be on none, and others will be on a clinically appropriate dose as necessary
If you constantly eat meat with antibiotics in you’re increasing your tolerance to antibiotics no matter the amount. So when you actually need antibiotics they’re going to do fuck all for you
A) “You” as in your mammalian cells don’t care about (most) antibiotics. Your intestinal microbiome does, however. But it doesn’t exactly get resistant. B) Antibiotica used in medicine are generally reserved for medical purposes. High usage in agriculture is not pretty, sure, and certainly won’t help multi-resistant pathogen issues, but your statement is wrong regardless.
I mean, we’re doing better than basically every other 1st world country, and those that are beating us don’t have big livestock industries.
Are Nordic countries invisible to you?
The U.S. has to pretend that they don’t exist because it would cause them to face a lot of big issues otherwise.
You must have a very unusual definition of first world.
The UK and New Zealand are both big livestock producers which are doing well on this metric. But yes, the US is doing alright overall here