WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Bob Martin is a senior officer at The Pew Environment Group and former Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, investigating the problems associated with industrial farm animal production operations and to make recommendations to solve them. The Commission has released a report with no less than 24 primary recommendations. The Commission was so concerned about the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in food animal production, and the potential threat to public health, that five of those recommendations deal with antibiotic use. The top two public health recommendations call for the end of non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animal production and set strict definitions for their use. Martin says the Commission’s findings make it clear that the present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and presents an unacceptable level of risk to public health, damage to the environment, as well as unnecessary harm to the animals we raise for food. Martin was in Bloomington last week to talk to local farmers about these issues and stopped by the Firehouse to warn of the dangers of pumping our farm animals full of antibiotics, in this WFHB exclusive.
