Food and Agriculture Legislative Priorities for 2009
Sustainable agriculture practices can protect the environment and produce high-quality, safe, and affordable food. Our goal is to promote such practices while eliminating harmful agricultural methods that undermine the foundations of our food supply, such as healthy air, water, and soil. We also work to strengthen government oversight of genetically engineered food.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Pass legislation to address overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture – Livestock producers use an estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics and related drugs produced in the United States for nontherapeutic purposes such as accelerating animal growth and routine disease prevention. Mounting scientific evidence shows that this routine feeding of antibiotics to farm animals that are not sick promotes development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can be transferred to people, making it harder to treat bacterial infections in humans. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, for example, are a significant public health threat; what many people do not know is that MRSA is present in U.S. livestock in a form that is transmissible to humans.
The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to withdraw approvals for feed-additive use of seven specific classes of antibiotics that are important in human medicine: penicillins, tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamides, streptogramins, aminoglycosides, and sulfonamides.
More information is available at www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/wise_antibiotics/.
Provide funding for research on antibiotic use and antibiotic resistant diseases – The 2007 Food and Farm Bill created a new USDA competitive research program called Research and Education Grants for the Study of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. This important research program would provide much-needed information for livestock producers on how to minimize the use of antibiotics while protecting the health of animals and people. Funding is needed to implement this important research initiative. Funding is also needed to assist the USDA in collecting data about levels of antibiotic-resistant diseases, such as MRSA in livestock.
Promote implementation of sustainable and organic programs in the Food and Farm Bill – We support strong and quick implementation of Food and Farm Bill programs that encourage sustainable and organic agriculture, including research, conservation, organic conversion assistance, and public plant and animal breeding. We believe the 2008 Food and Farm Bill made progress in strengthening specific sustainable agriculture programs that support modern farming practices that protect the foundations of our food supply, like healthy soil and a fresh water supply. UCS will be looking to Congress to help oversee implementation of these key programs and ensure that sufficient funding is provided.
More information is available at www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/sustainable_food.
