Glad you go into so much detail =) What I was trying to do was to point out the bigger picture in somewhat simpler terms.
Yes, there is natural occurrence of ABs but synthetic ones are clearly traceable and we cannot ignore their impact in terms of promoting resistance. MRSA was an illustration of what multiresistance can lead to. 19.000 documented deaths in the US in 2005, in fact more lives than AIDS claimed in the same year. I totally agree about excessive (mis)use of ABs by doctors and patients alike. Similar effects are observable with Malaria BTW. What we shouldn't underestimate is the enormous AB abuse in livestock. In many places, ABs are added to food in much the same way as vitamins and minerals and there is at least in the EU no legislation banning ABs for any time outside the last six weeks before slaughtering. If you then look at the genetic similarities between humans/primates and other land mammals (IIRC from biology class pigs share 97% DNA with humans) it becomes quite clear that there is or will be an impact, now or at some point. And yes about the huge favor we'd be doing nature. I guess I am oversensitive though because I have the feeling that most people around me just don't give a flying fuck about these things with the sorry excuse that nothing they can do will change or save a thing. I guess many of us have to think that way unless they want to question their lifestyle. Rant mode off and sorry for wasting everyone's time. Cheers Ecke 2009/9/11 AlunFoto <alunf...@gmail.com>: > Be careful about overdramatising antibiotics occurence in nature. > Antibiotics occur naturally in any habitat suitable for fungal growth. > > I think it is a mistake to put multi-resistant bacterias in hospitals > into this mix. It has very little to do with use of pesticides in > agriculture, or antibiotics in livestock. It has all the more to do > with the sloppy practice of GPs in prescribing antibiotics for > situations where they are not needed or not effective (ie viral > infections), and with general incompetence in the public about using > antibiotics. It is very common that patients quits the antibiotics > treatment when they start to feel better, rather than finishing the > cure. In addition, they save the leftovers for later occasion, taking > them as they would aspirin. This practice promotes resistance in > _human_ pathogens directly, and is a much larger problem than use of > antibiotics in livestock. I wish this could receive even half as much > attention as all this stuff about "clean" food. It would do both us > and nature a huge favour. > > Jostein > > 2009/9/11 eckinator <eckina...@gmail.com>: >> The principal difference to me is that organic fruit and vegetables >> reduce the amount of fertilizers and persticides polluting our water >> and that organic meat even more importantly reduces the amount of >> antibiotics released into the environment. Antibiotics are in fact >> traceable in almost all liquid water (except freshly molten glacier >> water etc) and affect the food chain and nature's system as a whole by >> either reducing bacterail growth or forcing the development by >> mutation of singly or multiply resistant bacteria. Anyone ever heard >> of the death toll of MRSA in hospitals? Well worth reading... it is >> not about your health, it is about the damage you do mainly. There are >> enough toxic substances in the environment to easily offset the >> benefits of organic food as it is... >> Cheers >> Ecke >> >> 2009/9/11 AlunFoto <alunf...@gmail.com>: >>> 2009/9/8 John Sessoms <jsessoms...@nc.rr.com>: >>>> >>>> What exactly *IS* organic? How does a product qualify to have that label? >>>> >>>> It's like things labeled "natural". It doesn't mean anything. >>> >>> What I do know is that unless you _are_ a vegetable, there's no such >>> thing as inorganic food. :-) >>> >>> What defined as organic is defined in legislation in Europe. However I >>> feel that the health effect of organic (or "ecological" as it is >>> labelled in Norway) is overrated for many products. Scary stories like >>> the peppers from Germany of course reinforces the good vs. bad >>> dichotomy, but for most products I don't think the difference is that >>> dramatic. >>> >>> On another note, high quality (and high price) non-organic food is >>> competing directly with its organic counterparts. The cheap stuff is >>> bad whether it's organic or not. >>> >>> Jostein >>> >>> >>> -- >>> http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ >>> http://alunfoto.blogspot.com >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> PDML@pdml.net >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>> follow the directions. >>> >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> > > > > -- > http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ > http://alunfoto.blogspot.com > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
