After reading Livestock’s Long Shadow, someone in the class asked about why the FDA allows antibiotics to be used in feed. By happenstance, I discovered a National Resources Defense Council brief that reviewed an FDA review of the safety of feed antibiotics that had been approved for ‘non-therapeutic use.’
FDA’s scientific reviewers’ findings show that none of these products would likely be approvable as new additives for nontherapeutic livestock use if submitted today, under current FDA guidelines. Eighteen of the 30 reviewed feed additives were deemed to pose a “high risk” of exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the food supply, based on the information available. The remainder lacked adequate data for the reviewers to make any determination and their safety remains unproven. In addition, FDA concluded in their review that at least 26 of the reviewed feed additives do not satisfy even the safety standards set by FDA in 1973. (From NDRC)