Late in the day Thursday, a New York court passed a ruling that will require the FDA to get serious about antibiotics in meat.
The lawsuit,
brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for
Science in the Public Interest, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Public
Citizen, and Union of Concerned Scientists, is a pretty big deal. But to
understand it, we must step back in time to 1977, when the FDA saw the
first clear evidence that connected low doses of growth promoting
antibiotics in animals to the existence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
capable of infecting people.
Since then, the agency has essentially sat on the information, while
making vague claims about its intentions to regulate antibiotics,
drafting a weak set of voluntary guidelines in 2010, and then formally declaring that it would end its attempt at any mandatory restrictions on the drugs late last year.
