California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a proposed first-in-the-nation state law to reduce antibiotic use in livestock and told legislators, “More needs to be done to understand and reduce our reliance on antibiotics.” In his veto message, he said state agricultural officials would work with lawmakers to find “new and effective ways to reduce the unnecessary antibiotics used for livestock and poultry.” The vetoed bill would have mandated compliance with the FDA’s plan to phase-out over three years the use of medically important antibiotics to promote growth of cattle, hogs and poultry. Drug makers say they will comply with the voluntary plan.
Consumer and environmental groups applauded the veto. They said the California bill was too weak – like the FDA plan, it would not prevent livestock producers from using the same antibiotics in the name of disease prevention that they now use as growth promotants. A trade group says 10 percent of livestock antibiotics are used for growth promotion. About 30 million pounds of antibiotics are sold or distributed annually for food animals.
Some segments of the livestock industry say campaign against over-use of antibiotics, to preserve their effectiveness for treating disease in people, is being used to attack conventional, large-scale meat production. Livestock groups say producers mostly use different antibiotics than those widely used in human health care so they are not to blame for drug-resistant infections in people.
Groups such as Consumers Union say the next step should be elimination of disease prevention as a permitted use for antibiotics. Bob Martin, head of the Food System Policy Program at Johns Hopkins, takes a broader view for reform. Martin was active in a landmark 2008 Pew Trust report and a follow-up 2013 Johns Hopkins report on meat production. The headline in both reports was a recommendation to end sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock. The 2013 report says air and water pollution from animal farms should be regulated “similar to that of other industrial operations;” that sow crates, crates for veal calves, battery cages for hens and other intensive confinement practices should be phased out; that stronger enforcement of antitrust laws is needed in agriculture; and more research is needed “into public health issues related to industrial production of food animals.”