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Green news from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
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Comments:
by Jeannie
on August 28, 2013 at 3:18 PM
You write, "Fixing this problem for most of us is as simple as buying organic meat or free-range antibiotic-free alternatives." Another alternative is to switch to a plant-based diet, which carries along with it a number of well-documented personal health benefits, as former meat-eater president Bill Clinton demonstrates, as well as public health benefits. Green Blog does a disservice to public health by assuming that the only alternative to the effects of prophylactic antibiotics is to switch to grass-fed beef. Grass-fed beef is not economically practical on a mass basis.
by Patricia Price
on August 30, 2013 at 4:58 PM
Where is the evidence that antibiotic resistance from this use is causing problems in human health? According to the literature, most human infections from resistant microbes come from humans (in hospitals, in fact), not least because so few people come in contact with livestock. My source is the CDC, what's yours?
by Suanne Klahorst
on August 30, 2013 at 10:27 PM
Jeannie, thanks for that comment. Dean Ornish, the UCSF cardiologist who has promoted plant-based diets for patients at risk of cardiovascular disease would appreciate that solution. It might be cost effective as well.  
 
Patricia, my source is what healthcare professionals are talking about. I suspect you know that I am a communicator at UCSF and not an expert in this field. Perhaps the recent tightening of use of antibiotics in medicine inspired the belief that if less antibiotics in one application is better, then less is better in all applications. I am looking forward to learning more about the issue and I hope that you can appreciate that this is a marketing issue and an ethical perspective as well as a research problem.
 
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