[SEMCO] Why Antibiotics Remain in the U.S. Food Supply - An MBL Special Lecture

[MBL News Office]

MBL SPECIAL LECTURE 
7 PM, Saturday, July 26 , 2014 
Lillie Auditorium, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole 
Free and open to the public; parking available in MBL lots 
More information: 508-289-7652 
Losing the Miracle: 
The FDA and the Controversy Over Livestock Antibiotics 



MARYN MCKENNA , Senior Fellow 
Schuster Institute of Investigative Journalism, Brandeis University 



Introduction by Nan Waksman Schanbacher, 
Waksman Foundation for Microbiology 
The discovery that antibiotics could improve yields in livestock production was made in 1948, at the start of the antibiotic era, and within a decade the drugs’ administration to farm animals for non-medical purposes had become routine. By 1969, the first alarms had been raised that antibiotic-resistant bacteria that developed on farms could spread to human populations through manure, runoff, meat and even farm workers themselves. Consequently, in 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed withdrawing its approvals of penicillin and tetracycline for agricultural use. The agency was persistently stymied in its efforts, and 37 years later, it has finally succeeded in implementing only voluntary controls. While Europe has imposed outright bans on growth promoters and there are country-specific controls on other antibiotic uses, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics remains common in U.S. agriculture. Simultaneously, public health, medical, and even Congressional opposition have risen—and so has the rate of emergence of antibiotic resistance worldwide. 

Maryn McKenna, the recipient of the 2013 Byron H. Waksman Award, is an independent journalist and author who specializes in public health, global health, and food policy. She is a columnist and contributing editor for Scientific American; a blogger for Wired and National Geographic’s The Plate ; and the author of SUPERBUG: The Fatal Menace of MRSA (2010) and Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (2004). McKenna is currently writing a book on antibiotic use in agriculture, to be published by National Geographic in 2015. 

About the Waksman Award: 

The Byron H. Waksman Award for Excellence in the Public Communication of Life Sciences is awarded annually by the Waksman Foundation to an institution or individual who demonstrates excellence in the communication of some aspect of life sciences. McKenna’s lecture at the MBL is sponsored by the Waksman Foundation and the MBL’s Logan Science Journalism Program. 
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