I am an avid gardener, animal lover, homesteader, and wild herbalist. I rarely get on the 'you should be freaked out' ban wagon. However, I have just caught wind of a very dangerous regulation, called a directive, that is going to: 1- raise food prices, 2- decrease animal health, and 3- will possibly put the few American farmers that are left out of business. Click here to read the bill for yourself; then I will explain why this is soooo scary.
To begin with this bill advocates an 'oversight' concerning antibiotics that before farmers never had. It dresses up the regulation as a good thing, because it will regulate antibiotic use in feed for food producing animals. However, it will also regulate ALL other antibiotics (except a few) deemed "Medically Important". This means, that in order for a homesteader or farmer to treat an animal for a disease, infection, or injury...they MUST now call a vet. Whereas before, all "Medically Important" antibiotics have been kept on the feed store shelves and the farmer could treat sick animals without a large vet bill. This will all change now. Can you imagine what it is going to cost now to treat 40 to 100 cows with a runny eye? Often this is a beginning sign of RBI, a pneumonia-like condition, that if not caught early can destroy a herd. So calling a vet, will take time and money that most farmers DO NOT HAVE. Calling a vet to treat several animals would raise the bill by thousands. So, your food prices will go up! It's called the Veterinary Feed Directive, but this name is very misleading. It does make a new regulation to remove antibiotics from feed, unless you have a prescription. It also removed life saving antibiotics from public use for animals, unless you also have a prescription. Not many vets are large animal vets anymore, and those that are, charge a hefty fee to drive out on a farm call. Our vet charges $150 to $200 just to come out before any treatment is given. If you still don not think it is targeting the medically needed antibiotics, here is a quote from the website, " Now, the agency is moving to eliminate the use of such drugs for production purposes (i.e., growth promotion and feed efficiency) and bring their remaining therapeutic uses in feed and water under the supervision of licensed veterinarians." This last part is crucial...THEIR REMAINING THERAPEUTIC USES IN FEED AND WATER. That covers all life saving antibiotics as well as ones used for growth. Have you ever thought about how you might track down and inject a pasture of cows on a daily bases? It is impossible! Factory farms can do that, because the cows never see the light of day and are standing in their own sh** in very small quarters. But the real farmer with cows or animals in a pasture, cannot do it and someone is trying very hard to put the VERY FEW that are left out of business. And for those of you who say go natural, hmmm that isn't possible at this point. Farmers (the majority) do not have the skills, knowledge or time being so under paid, over regulated and over worked to figure out natural medicine at this point. It's just like you driving 30miles a day to work, then someone comes along and takes your car and your told just walk to work. You cannot even understand how upsurd this is. I know a lot of these farmers and they are so mild mannered and easy going, but this is going to cost the last of them all they have. Many have expressed to me how they will go under. Farming is the hardest job on earth. It's unaffordable and just plain destructive to pull the rug out from under them this way. Oh, and yes, you will go hungry when all this comes back around. Yes. those regulations WILL come back around to the people and food that was there last year, will NOT be there. *My vet says even injectables are included, although they will transition over later.
Many farmers who treat several animals must use powder put into food or water, because to inject several on a daily bases is a lot of work. IT's impossible for animals on 100acres of pasture! Not all animals will be happy to be shot with a needle continuously either. It would be dangerous to deny small farmers the easier way of using a water soluble powder to treat a large number of animals at once. By putting into feed or water, the sick animals are treated without trouble or a large charge. This is going to cost everyone. Farmers must pass on their costs to consumers, and when food prices go up, the farmer (who cannot compete with big corporations) will go out of business. The fewer farmers, the less amount of food is being put into circulation. Then because of supply and demand, the bigger corporations can raise prices and no one is left to compete. Here is another quote, from the FDA, questions page.."What will this mean in practice? Answer: Once these changes are fully implemented, it will be illegal to use these medically important antibiotics for production purposes, period. Instead of having unrestricted over-the-counter access, animal producers will need to obtain authorization from a licensed veterinarian to use these medications for therapeutic uses — for prevention, control or treatment of a specifically identified disease." Notice that word "fully"...that means even shots or any "medically important antibiotic will go out of reach for farmers and homesteaders!!! So affordable and safe access to antibiotics will be no longer available to the homesteaders and small farmers and this is good?!? Just so long as it seems to have a good sounding cause, like antibiotic resistance or adding oversight to unrestricted use. Try adding cost and regulation as well as a national registry of animals to over worked and underpaid farmers and killing the self sufficient homestead movement at the same time.
Again, from their own mouths, it is clear...you will need a prescription to treat your animal for disease, (therapeutic uses)! So basically all antibiotics are going to be off the shelf and given only under very strict guidelines and costly measures. *That means more sick animals, less food in circulation and many farmers/homesteaders will give up or go under. See the list that even includes injectables that will go into transition from OTC to needing a VDF (prescription). All the "medically important" antibiotics will be unreachable by the common farmer! Wake up folks.
Let's look at this in a very real way. I and many other people I know, have had to treat an emergency on the homestead, and haven't had the money to call a vet on the spot. My animals do not eat antibiotic-laced feed, but have had to receive a life saving antibiotic only a handful of times. Calling a vet 45 minutes away, and costing as much as the animal is worth, is not exactly affordable or promoting good animal husbandry. In fact, it's promoting sickness and possible death among those animals in the food supply when the farmer cannot afford a vet. Many sick animals are still processed into food although they aren't well or have died of sickness. This will only increase. Sounds yummy, huh? No! While the factory farms will still have the ability to lace their food with the antibiotics that are indeed causing antibiotic resistance, because their vet is on payroll. No need to worry, you'll still be getting the antibiotics from the animals coming from the factory farms.
So how is this absurd bill getting passed? It is claiming to add oversight (the vet) to all animal care. It also claims to remove the antibiotics for safety because of the antibiotic resistance that is becoming a problem. Well, couldn't they just remove the antibiotics in feed? Yes, they could, but they are putting ALL antibiotics under "judicious oversight". As well as leaving the door open to factory farms to still use antibiotics in the feed, by simply saying they will need a prescription. All factory farms have vets on their payroll. So do you really think that the vet is going to turn down the factory that pays his steady income from the prescription it wants ? See, the antibiotics in feed help to add weight to the animals. It is used like a steroid. It fattens up the animals quick. So the factory farms will still be able to put antibiotics into the feed because they have vets on call. However, small farmers and homesteaders will lose the ability to treat and care for a sick or injured animal cheaply and quick. So masked under the "removal from feed" please read the bill and pay close attention to words like "Judicious Oversight", "Medically Important", "need a prescription to treat, prevent or use therapeutically for any sickness or disease". Again, this is no joke, and cause and effect will raise the costs of food to a level that you cannot imagine. If the cost of caring for an animal doubles, so will your food prices. You should contact your representatives now to find out why this thing got shoved into law, without even the consent or knowledge of most farmers. The costs of vet oversight to give life saving care to an animal will put most into a position to loose everything they have. And could cause our delicate food supply to take such a hit, most small farmers will have to give up and quit. Famine anyone? But I think that is exactly the reason this was pushed through without anyone knowing until months before becoming effective. Most of us cannot even imagine how few farmers there are left in America. It is a very scary number! America only has .25% of it's populace in farming. Oh, yes. NOT EVEN 1%! While Russia has a robust 10%, and China 33%, we here in America are staring famine in the face, by regulating our farmers to death and out of work. Not even 1% of our population is farming, while at the turn of the previous century (in the early 1900's) 90% of America was farming. Click on the link below, to see the 'tricky' numbers. *Notice that the US numbers are tricky, it combines farming, fishery, and forestry to get it's already low number. It also uses only the 'working population', while other countries includes the entire population! Below link is the comparison of the three major world 'Super Powers'. Russia, China, and the US. It is a joke how few farmers we have left. The accurate number without tricks, is about .25%. And if you look at the link, you will see the US ranks third to the bottom, in the entire world for farming. We are only beat by two countries (the smallest countries in the world) for last place. Vatican city and another small island are the only two that have fewer people in farming than the US. Yes, we have the fewest people in the entire world in farming for a country over a few miles wide. *Also note most farmers here in the US grow crops that you cannot eat such as GMO corn, cotton and soy. You're staring famine in the face! Check it for yourself.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2048.html
United States: farming, forestry, and fishing: 0.7%
manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts: 20.3%
managerial, professional, and technical: 37.3%
sales and office: 24.2%
other services: 17.6%
*note: figures exclude the unemployed (elderly, children, and unemployed are not counted) roughly 1/2 of the population.
(2009)
China agriculture: 33.6%
industry: 30.3%
services: 36.1%
(2012 est.)
Russia agriculture: 9.7%
industry: 27.8%
services: 62.5% (2012)
They listed .7% as the amount of farmers, in the US but only included 'the working population' to manipulate that high figure. Again that is more accurately .25%, NOT EVEN 1%! As they say, "No Farmers, No Food"! The hammer is about to fall and your still worried about the joke of an election..
