Late last week, California adopted some of the strictest laws in the nation regarding overuse of antibiotics on farms.





According to Vox.com , “Gov. Jerry Brown signed the toughest restrictions yet on antibiotic use in the United States, banning the state's livestock producers from using certain antibiotics for routine disease prevention and growth promotion.”





With 80 percent of antibiotics in this country administered to farmed animals, the risks posed to human health cannot be overstated. In fact, by 2050, scientists estimate the death toll from drug-resistant infections could rise from today’s 700,000 (a low estimate) to an astonishing 10 million per year.





In a statement, Governor Brown explains that “the overuse of antibiotics in livestock has contributed to the spread of antibiotic resistance and the undermining of decades of lifesaving advances in medicine.”





Certainly, treating sick animals is understandable and necessary, but on many farms, antibiotics are fed to animals in low doses to promote growth and keep them alive in filthy conditions that could otherwise kill them.





While California’s move is certainly great news for the future of lifesaving antibiotics, it does nothing to improve the lives of the billions of farmed animals who are suffering on today’s factory farms.





See for yourself:









Abuses such as extreme confinement, mutilations without painkillers, and merciless slaughter are all too common for animals raised for meat, dairy, and eggs.





The best thing compassionate people can do to protect their own health and the lives of countless suffering farmed animals is to move towards a vegan diet.



