Why are some people afraid that non-organic farming may lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria?
Question by Bob: Why are some people afraid that non-organic farming may lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria?
CAN ANYONE ANNSWER THIS TOO??, MORE VOTES IF YOU DO?
Is all organic food the same. does it matter where it comes from?
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11 Responses to Why are some people afraid that non-organic farming may lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria?
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They live in an antiseptic, germaphobic neverland and are complete fools.
Sleeping Beauty
February 29, 2012 at 10:26 am
Because antibiotics are being used in the process.
However, they are unlikely to be bacteria which would infect humans as the conditions are not right.
Spoon
February 29, 2012 at 10:55 am
because it usually brings the gene pool of a particular crop or animal down from thousands to about 5. which is ridiculously stupid, that would mean in the future one superbug could take them out easily, while if we have more varieties it will be a better chance of one of them surviving
Mark K
February 29, 2012 at 11:49 am
Maybe some people dont know the side affects when using what you call “non-organic farming”
LUCIENDA
February 29, 2012 at 12:04 pm
It already has. Incorporation of antibiotics into animal feed (chickens, cattle) makes them grow faster, but also makes the bacteria in their gut resistant to the antibiotics.
jerry758
February 29, 2012 at 12:33 pm
bacteria constantly mutate. when some bacteria is left (common in chemical treatment of bacteria in plants) it tends to develop an immunity to the antibiotics. the immune bacteria then proceeds to multiply, passing on the immunity to its successors.
Justin
February 29, 2012 at 12:48 pm
because of evolution. if the pesticides kill of the majority of a bacteria, then the only ones left to reproduce are the ones that have mutated and are resistant. with the pesticide-vulnerable bacteria out of the gene pool only the resistant ones will reproduce, creating a new generation of mostly resistant pests, making the pesticides ineffective. if some of the pests being killed are bacteria and the pesticides are antibiotics then it is possible that a large generation of antibiotic resistant bacteria would be produced, and those are scary because the use of antibiotics is a major tool that has helped increase average life expectancy, resistant ones means that old method cannot be relied upon.
hotnbotherd91
February 29, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Sometimes they dish out antibiotics like sweets. The animal is a bit under the weather, give it antibiotics. Doctors used to do the same. The doctors infamous phrase used to be “You’ve got a viral infection, I’ll give you some antibiotics”. Completely pointless. Sometimes vets do the same.
Bacteria like every creature has the odd genetic mutation when it reproduces. Sometimes that mutation makes it immune to the antibiotic. In a way you are breeding bacteria that are immune. The more antibiotics are used, the more likely this is to happen. It has already happened in humans with bacteria like MRSA.
fruit_cake
February 29, 2012 at 1:31 pm
people should have greater concerns for the excess of nitrates in their food, which causes cancer, and that food grown outside the UK will have prohibited substances used during their culture, such as DDT etc.
Mick W
February 29, 2012 at 2:15 pm
bacteria, and other pathogenic factors mutate rapidly, developing resistance. farmers react by using higher doses, but that is self-defeating, as the population of resistant varieties increase. it becomes a vicious circle – you use more expensive anti-biotics, and the pathogens develop resistance to those too. Only the multi-national kartels manufacturing the stuff profit!!! so they go on advertising “better and costlier” antibiotics with allegedly miraculous properties all the time.
Organic food is rich with variety. The place where they are grown, the nutrients they absorb, everything adds the spice of difference to them. So it does matter where it comes from.
tmadhava m
February 29, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Eastern Europe has been using phage technology for decades, instead of using antibiotics. The phage tends to not only wipe out its target bacteria, but also to mutate to match the mutations of the disease.
Now this was not needed in western medicine which had discovered antibiotics. However antibiotics do not mutate to keep ahead of the disease. So, because our antibiotics used for human and veterinary medicine are mostly the same, traces of the antibiotic in our food allow bacteria in our bodies to adapt to that antibiotic. This low level of exposure is very helpful for a bacteria to make the mutation that allows it to survive. But also, human bacteria so get into other species, and they mutate there, before coming back into our species.
Every domestic animal species has been host to at least one human disease, so of course those become resistant just as readily in those domestic animals.
The other side of this case is that we should long since have been using phage technology to handle diseases in veterinary medicine for just this reason. And, we are going to have to use a lot more phage technology in human medicine because nothing we do in veterinary medicine is going to undo the existing development of antibiotic resistant diseases.
We can use things like copper sulphate to control many diseases in veterinary medicine, and this cuts down massively on the amount of antibiotics we put into our aquifers, and into our food. But when we have a major devastating disease outbreak we need to use either a phage or an antibiotic, too. And with antibiotic resistance rising, we are losing that option.
donfletcheryh
February 29, 2012 at 2:58 pm