Amer­i­ca’s cheap meat habit is cost­ing more than we bar­gained for. The fac­to­ry farm­ing of cows, pigs, poul­try and fish sucks up 29 mil­lion pounds — 80 per­cent — of antibi­otics sold in the Unit­ed States.

Many ill­ness-caus­ing bac­te­ria are now resis­tant to most or all of the antibi­otics that once killed them. While the overuse of antibi­otics on humans has con­tributed to this pub­lic health cri­sis, the most egre­gious fac­tor in cre­at­ing antibi­ot­ic resis­tance is the rou­tine, wide­spread, greed-dri­ven dos­ing of live­stock. About a quar­ter of U.S. meat and poul­try sam­ples con­tain antibi­ot­ic-resis­tant bacteria.

The FDA, after more than three decades of dither­ing, has final­ly acknowl­edged a ​“mount­ing pub­lic health prob­lem of glob­al sig­nif­i­cance.” But, when even indus­try acknowl­edges a seri­ous prob­lem, an April FDA report con­tain­ing ​“non-bind­ing rec­om­men­da­tions” polite­ly asks the food indus­try to use antibi­otics ​“judi­cious­ly” — and gives indus­try three years to fig­ure out how to cir­cum­vent the reforms.

In 1946, pro­duc­ers dis­cov­ered that adding antibi­otics to feed increased ani­mal growth — and indus­try prof­its. This sub­ther­a­peu­tic dos­ing also allowed live­stock to sur­vive filthy, over­crowd­ed con­di­tions that would oth­er­wise gen­er­ate high and unprof­itable rates of dis­ease and death.

Antibi­otics work by tar­get­ing spe­cif­ic bac­te­ria, but they can leave the field open for resis­tant strains. CAFOs (con­cen­trat­ed ani­mal feed­ing oper­a­tions) are near­ly ide­al for gen­er­at­ing resis­tant bac­te­ria, and then spread­ing them through work­ers, flies, soil, air, water and, of course, food. Strains of strep; MRSA; tuber­cu­lo­sis; malar­ia; pneu­mo­nia; gon­or­rhea; var­i­ous food poi­sons, includ­ing sal­mo­nel­la; along with oth­er dan­ger­ous pathogens are increas­ing­ly imper­vi­ous to com­mon, inex­pen­sive antibiotics.

New bac­te­r­i­al strains direct­ly sourced to CAFOs are endem­ic in hos­pi­tals. An esti­mat­ed 2 mil­lion Amer­i­cans become sick, and 99,000 die annu­al­ly, from hos­pi­tal-acquired infec­tions, ​“the major­i­ty of which result from such resis­tant strains,” the New York Times report­ed. Treat­ing resis­tant dis­eases costs $16 – 26 bil­lion in annu­al med­ical expens­es and $35 bil­lion in lost work time, Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty researchers estimated.

The alpha­bet slur­ry of gov­ern­ment agen­cies respon­si­ble for reme­di­at­ing this prob­lem — FDA, USDA, CDC and oth­ers — has failed. Leav­ing loop­holes wide enough for a cat­tle dri­ve, and enforce­ment mech­a­nisms as tooth­less as a hen, the new FDA report calls for ani­mal antibi­ot­ic label­ing to drop weight gain from its rec­om­mend­ed uses. (Giv­en how fre­quent­ly human drugs are used off-label — i.e., for oth­er than approved pur­pos­es — the change is beyond sil­ly.) The report also calls for vet­eri­nary ​“involve­ment” in deter­min­ing ​“judi­cious use,” includ­ing pre­ven­tive­ly treat­ing ani­mals that might become sick from ​“pro­duc­tion prac­tices and herd health his­to­ry.” With­out fun­da­men­tal changes to how CAFOs raise their ​“prod­uct,” it is hard to imag­ine cir­cum­stances that would not call for pre­ven­ta­tive antibiotics.

The FDA’s weak-kneed step in the indus­try-reg­u­la­tor dance per­pe­trates one of the old­est tricks in the book.

The Book: Cor­po­rate greed cre­ates or exac­er­bates a threat to pub­lic health or wel­fare. Gov­ern­ment avoids bit­ing the cor­po­rate hand that feeds elect­ed offi­cials and the bud­get-starved or cor­rupt­ed bureau­crats they hire.

The Trick: Deny there is a prob­lem; reject causal links; foot drag on action; promise tech­no­log­i­cal fix­es; fail to demand or gath­er data and sta­tis­tics, there­by ensur­ing that costs and solu­tions remain spec­u­la­tive; appoint com­mit­tees to look into the mat­ter; write reports; and final­ly, announce vol­un­tary guide­lines and/​or inad­e­quate reg­u­la­tions that impose few if any penalties.

​“Antibi­ot­ic-resis­tant dis­eases now kill more Amer­i­cans than AIDS,” Louise Slaugh­ter (D‑N.Y.) said in an April 11 state­ment, ​“and this issue needs to be treat­ed with the seri­ous­ness it deserves.”

The FDA has failed to do that, but we can refuse to buy fac­to­ry meat. Sure, you may have to pay more or eat less meat, but think of the price as a dona­tion to eth­i­cal farm­ers who treat ani­mals decent­ly, and pro­tect pub­lic health. Talk about a bargain.