Is it any surprise a business in the business of unnecessarily abusing and slaughtering millions of animals lacks integrity? Because there shouldn’t be any surprise. In addition to just the general animal agriculture industry lacking any sort of integrity, so is their label of “raised without antibiotics.”

Published in the journal Science, researchers from George Washington University conducted a study of approximately 700 cattle from 313 lots and 33 different “raised without antibiotics” certified feed-yards. They found 9% had multiple lots in
which all samples tested positive for antibiotics; 12% had all samples
test positive in a single lot; and 21% had a positive sample in more than one lot; and 42% had at least one animal test positive for antibiotics.

The cattle industry is ran but a bunch of cheats. The team found that the meat industry cheat on their claims and that the USDA does not mandate empirical testing to validate the “raised without antibiotics” claim.

Logically, the exposure of this scam makes sense because it is impossible to raise any animals, including humans, in close quarters without some sort of infection. So unless, the animal raisers want to see their profit die in front of their eyes, they’ll have to use antibiotics. This is bad for the consumer because for one thing, it is scamming them as “raised without antibiotics” labeled meat tend to be more expensive. Second, the secondary exposure to antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria from animal agriculture is a huge source of many of our incurable infections.

So just stop eating meat. The industry is run by crooks and is a huge hazard to your health in so many ways, including exposing you and your family to unnecessary doses of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Can you really trust some who abuses innocent and gentle herbivores to care anything about your health?

LB Price et al. Policy reforms for antibiotic use claims in livestock. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abj1823