Torrella, K. (2023, December 15). Big meat just can’t quit antibiotics. Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/1/8/23542789/big-meat-antibiotics-resistance-fda

After two major changes to laws regarding antibiotic use on livestock, a major drop in their use was seen by about 42%. In the years since these changes however, antibiotic use is back on the rise. Despite some livestock industries, notably chicken, switching completely off of antibiotics products like beef and pork are still unable to turn away from the antibiotics. The article advocates for more regulations to be put into place as there are still loopholes preventing antibiotic use from truly dropping. It also notes that Europe and some parts of the US have moved from antibiotics with little issue.

This article was pretty surprising to read. It mentions how antibiotics are being used more commonly by the meat industry rather than actual humans. At one point the meat industry was even buying up 69% of the total US antibiotic supply which was shocking. This article relates to environmental science as it shows how unnatural our food production has gotten and remains. This type of unnatural growth of animals is what leads to things like cows being such a major contributor to climate change. The industries ability to make sure animals won’t die allows them to have tons. This in turn leads to issues like excessive methane release which is a major contributor to our planet’s climate change. However, this article also mentions the need for more land if the US were to move away from antibiotics. This in turn will cause a larger carbon footprint for the pork making it a hard issue to balance.