Quote: Originally Posted by karrie
This article from the Chicken Farmers of Canada talks a bit about the issue.
To delve even further into it though, I sought out Health Canada's word on the matter.
From this article, found at the Veterinary Drugs Directorate of Health Canada, which explains much of Canada's efforts toward monitoring antimicrobial resistance, you can follow links to numerous other pages on the subject, including a letter which 'encourages' farmers to properly evaluate and stop using antimicrobials if they are not providing significant return in yield on their animals. It comes off as a pretty weak position frankly. A lot of 'suggest', 'encourage', etc.
A pamphlet from the Alberta government however is slightly more strongly worded in its expectation that animals not be introduced into the food supply until after the withdrawal time (time it takes medicine to leave the system entirely) has passed.
Part of the reason none of these take a harder stance on antibiotic use is the simple fact of cost.... using antibiotics helps keep more of...
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The various official pieces of information available on this are all pretty weak, but they don't have a lot of choice.
I don't think they could do an outright ban on antibiotics in meat without first considering that it is a system of steps that has been developed to work, sort of. Simply removing antibiotics from the mix would kill a lot of animals (or at least render them sick and "unfit for consumption") and collapse the entire system.
On the other hand, the systems have been developed with what seems to be high production/low cost (some call it "efficiencies") as the main driver. Why? Because we - the consumers - demand lowest possible prices.
The unfortunate part is, nutritional goodness hasn't been high on the list of priorities or outcomes with this approach. I mean, it is food after all...the stuff that is supposed to nourish us. And, if we treated ourselves like we treat these commercial meats, we would all be on a steady diet of antibiotics "just in case we might get sick." But, we seem to be heading in that direction anyway, as we're getting some of those things in our daily diet.
I think the governments are faced with a bit of a dilemma here...they're trying to maintain "food safety" in the middle of all this, and they're primarily focused on bacteria and mad cow disease, bird flu outbreaks, listeria, and so on. That is pretty much short term or immediate food safety. The longer term effects - and they are many beyond simply ingesting antibiotics - aren't subject to the same political pressure.
If the pressure from consumers ever does get to the point where better quality meats become the mainstream demand, no doubt the governments will assume a different or more intense stance on this. So far, I don't see that coming along anytime soon.
Raising animals to provide more nutrional and healthy meats is quite possible, and it's being done more and more every day in various parts of Canada. It's being done to suppy the growing demand for higher quality food. It just hasn't "caught on" yet with the mainstream consumers.
Karrie's right, too. Money seems to be the prime motivator, not people.