I wonder why, in the entire article on
the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (which is probably going to result in mass plagues, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth), the author fails to mention the biggest contributing factor to this phenomenon:
factory farming practices. I
wrote a paper on this in law school awhile back, and it's a very serious and scary problem.
Why isn't anything being done to regulate the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture? Because factory farming just wouldn't be possible without antibiotics, and the largest producers of animal products in our country (Tyson, Smithfield Foods, etc.) have incredible influence on any and all legislation that might affect their industries. So, in addition to being
horrible polluters, and crowding out, taking over, or using their influence to shut down family farmers (see, e.g., Food, Inc.), the big players in this industry are putting our collective health at risk by squandering one of our most important medical resources.