Fitness Files: Keep pressure on In-N-Out
I wanted to reread Bradley Zint’s Daily Pilot article from a couple weeks ago.
In-N-Out is vowing to adopt a new process in response to complaints about antibiotic-spiked beef, it said.
I wanted to reread the article because I’d just pulled this month’s Scientific American out of a pile of magazines and noticed Keeve Nachman’s “Pills for Pigs: Just Say No.”
Zint reported that a coalition of 50 groups told In-N-Out that the “overuse” of antibiotics contributes to a rise in antibiotic-resistant infections that, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, claims at least 23,000 American lives per year.
Nachman’s Scientific American article opens with Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of antibiotic’s prophetic 1945 statement warning that the overuse of his miracle drug could make bacteria immune to it. Seventy years later, we are there.
WebMD states flatly that “food animals get 80% of the antibiotics used in the U.S. — mostly in ways that can lead to the growth of drug-resistant superbugs ... one of the world’s greatest health threats, according to the CDC, the FDA, the World Health Organization and a wide range of medical professional societies. These groups cite ‘strong evidence’ that many of these hard-to-treat germs arise in food animals and spread to humans.”
That’s why hamburger lovers are questioning In-N-Out. They’d better keep the pressure on if they want change. According to the Pilot, the chain’s vice president of quality, Keith Brazeau, says In-N-Out has “asked our suppliers to accelerate their progress toward establishing antibiotic alternatives.”
I thought his statement was too open-ended. The activists did too, because they said thank you but could we have a timeline?
We should ask for specifics.
Here’s a consumer update from your friendly FDA: “The Food and Drug Administration is implementing a voluntary plan with industry to phase out the use of certain antibiotics for enhanced food production.” The words “voluntary” and “certain antibiotics” get my attention.
The FDA-speak got the attention of the Natural Resources Defense Council too. According to a New York Daily News article from January 2014, “A study by the NRDC slams the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for allowing 18 livestock drugs to stay on the market even after the agency deemed them ‘high risk’ for exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”
Here’s what Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, says: “Based on our outreach, we have every reason to believe that animal pharmaceutical companies will support us in this effort.”
Did you take note of WebMD saying that 80% of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to feed? If you were selling antibiotics, would you cooperate voluntarily to reduce your profits by 80%?
As I sit in front of my computer, Patch, an online news source, popped up: “Hospitals Release Deadly Superbug into the Environment Via Sewage.”
The Patch article, based on information first reported by the Los Angeles Times, says the fear is that healthy beachgoers and swimmers could be infected with the so-called nightmare bug.
Nachman of the Scientific American sums up the hollow FDA plan this way: “In 2013 the Food and Drug Administration finally stepped in, asking drug companies to stop selling antibiotics for the purpose of promoting the growth of animals by December 2016. The agency still allows the use of these drugs for ‘disease prevention’ — that is, to fight off infections animals have not yet gotten.”
It continues by saying “this loophole” seems to allow farmers to continue with what they have been doing.
To make things worse, the article adds, the FDA intends, instead of planning a meaningful means of evaluating the effect of its actions, to rely on sales data from drug companies while acknowledging that sales aren’t a reliable gauge of how antibiotics are really being used.
I called Irvine-based In-N-Out to ask if company officials had made any progress on a timeline to eliminate antibiotics in beef. It’s a small company and to its credit a human answered.
Brazeau was not available, but I spoke to Phyllis, a lovely lady in marketing. There’s no timeline yet. She has my email in case anything is decided. Lets hope In-N-Out doesn’t rely on suppliers who merely report that they’ve followed the FDA’s plan.
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Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK, since turning 70, has run the Los Angeles Marathon and the Carlsbad Marathon.
