Seems like lunch places are all charging $10-12.

And what used to be mid priced dinner places all have $15 entries, $3 soft drinks and offer no appetizers like soups or salads.

Meanwhile, raw food at supermarkets has come down a bit...

Lots of articles report a MRSA outbreak at an AR hatchery two years ago.  But none name the hatchery, nor the town where it occurred.  Did the event really happen?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But we'll never know for sure if lazy writers like Philpott are all we have for information.

Ever notice how people like philpott keep squawking about a link between livestock\poultry and MRSA, but the poeple who get get sick with it have almost always contracted the disease in a facility where large numbers of people congregate?

How about somebody posts some links to health agency reports and news articles on this Arkansas hatchery outbreak.   

Agribusiness needs to be more tightly regulated, although I hate that there has to be regulation, it is evident that greed kills.

Medical doctors and veternarians always start you off with ampicillin whic is a synthetic penicillin. tey have created the antibiotic mess through their ignorance - yes ignorance...

Imagine this miracle substance that will allow faster growth and "healthier" chickens that mature earlier - a busineessman's dreams - only for money and greed- never mind the long term consequences...

Currently Congress is considering the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), a bill to restrict the use of antibiotics in the feed and water of animals that are not sick. This “nontherapeutic” use of antibiotics accounts for an estimated 70 percent of the use of these drugs, and leads to the development of drug resistant bacteria that is easily transmitted to humans through direct contact with animals, as in the Johns Hopkins research; through consumption of tainted meat; or even through cross-contamination of other foods from raw and undercooked meat.

Within two years of enactment, PAMTA would require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to re-review the approvals it previously issued for animal feed uses of the seven classes of antibiotics that are important to human medicine. Any found to be unsafe from a resistance point of view will have their approvals rescinded.

Pennsylvania’s members of Congress are in key positions to ensure passage of this legislation. Send a letter to your representative and Senators Casey and Specter today by visiting:

https://secure3.convio.net/ucs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1924

Passage of PAMTA is critical to keep antibiotics working for human health. In addition to averting the harmful effects of antibiotic overuse on human health, curtailing animal use of antibiotics will encourage producers to raise animals in better living conditions that are less conducive to disease. Many Pennsylvania farmers already know that it is possible and profitable to raise animals without nontherapeutic use of antibiotics.

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/wise_antibiotics/pamta.html

Tanvi Gadhia

Food & Environment

Union of Concerned Scientists

Yes MRSA has traditionally been a problem in hospitals. More recently it has begun to cause illness in people in the general community. The link to animals is even newer but is well established. There is no doubt that livestock handlers and veterinarians are a high risk group for MRSA. Here is a link to a USDA FACT sheet that lays out the evidence. http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cei/taf/emergingdiseasenotice_files/mrsa_122007.pdf

It is a bit dated, December 2007, so does not include the study on US pigs.