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Nearly every one knows someone, perhaps a relative or friend, who has failed to
respond to treatment with antibiotics due to the growing problems of superbugs
and antibiotic resistance. There is concern that this is linked to the presence
of residual antibiotics in the food we eat.
Over half the antibiotics used in the UK are given in food to farm animals
to suppress the infectious diseases that arise with intensive farming and to
act as artificial growth promoters.
Soil Association action
The Soil Association’s first organic standards, published in 1967, prohibited
the routine use of drugs and antibiotics in livestock, and the use of antibiotic
animal feed. Thanks to a long-running campaign by the Soil Association, the
EU was finally forced to ban six antibiotic feed additives in 1999 because of
their danger to human health.
To find out more about antibiotics in food visit www.soilassociation.org/antibiotics
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