Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Rhames on the current state of hog "farming" -- the Meat Gulags

Johann Hari on the real price of "cheap" meat

It's kind of ironic that the devaluation of antibiotics (via their promiscuous use in factory ag) may be more dangerous than the acclerated development of new viruses...  a flu pandemic with effective antibiotics for the opportunistic bacterial infections isn't all that scary except for the most frail of immune systems.  Without effective antibiotics, kind of a different story (as in 1918, yes?  strep was the proximate cause of death, the flu just opened the door for strep).  But it's all part of the same sorry-ass picture of cruel greed (or greedy cruelty) and reckless disregard for the commonwealth (as in Common-weal, as in well-being).

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

by DeAnander (de_at_daclarke_dot_org) on Fri May 1st, 2009 at 07:23:56 PM EST
Herself - the SO - was working on bacteria resistance to antibiotics back in the mid-70s.  Even back then her group was sounding the alarm.  The ag industry countered with:

  1.  It didn't exist
  2.  If it does happen we'll invent new antibiotics

Sound familiar?  

The only broad-spectrum anti-biotic that can be used massively is Carbolic Acid.  Everything else in the  old shot locker needs to be reserved for some really nasty diseases we REALLY don't want developing resistance.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Fri May 1st, 2009 at 08:28:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series