This is a big month for food industry thought leaders. The Consumer Federation of America’s National Food Policy Conference just wrapped up. The True Cost of American Food and the Food Waste and Hunger Summit events are about to kick off, to be followed by the 2016 Food Tank Summit. We’re keeping a close eye on coverage surrounding these events.
In a post entitled “Do Americans hate their food system?” Politico reports that the National Food Policy Conference discussed findings from a bi-partisan poll conducted by Lake Research Partners (D) and Bellwether Research & Consulting (R). Most notably, that 60 percent of Americans think policy makers put profits before health. Across the board, Republicans, Democrats and independents expressed serious concern about declining nutrition and livestock practices.
Politico moved on to cover the conference’s discussion on antibiotic use in the livestock industry. A panel probed the critical question: Is antibiotic use increasing or decreasing? Apparently, nobody knows for sure. USDA Economic Research Service Branch Chief, James MacDonald, said he believes use has been declining in the poultry industry. He commented that the information for hogs is “much messier.”
According to the latest FDA report, sales and distribution of antibiotics for food-producing animals rose 22 percent from 2009 to 2014. But this information is not broken down by species. Furthermore, reporting is structured to protect “confidential business information.” Many producers in the industry feel that antibiotic usage information falls into that category.
As reported by Politico, Lance Price, a microbiologist and professor at George Washington University, is fed up with the industry’s lack of transparency. At the conference, he stated the following: “Producers have to report what they’re using. We need an integrated system that tracks what purpose the drug is being used for, on what animal and what farm. Only then can we send agents to help farmers solve the problem. A lot of people pretend this data is impossible to get.”
In preparation for the True Cost of American Food event, Civil Eats ran through a Q&A with Patrick Holden, farmer and director of Sustainable Food Trust (event host), in a post entitled “In Search of the True Cost of Industrial Meat.” It explores a host of important issues, but the first to surface was the cost of industrial meat.
Holden suggests that we have adopted a policy of “cause the damage now and pay more later,” identifying antibiotics resistance as one of our most pressing health issues. He acknowledges that there is not tangible proof that antibiotics used in livestock systems are to blame, but questions the fact the 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. go to livestock. Often times, use for growth purposes is loosely classified as “therapeutic” with little to no oversight. Holden hopes the conference will lead to improved data.
We would be remiss in not mentioning that the Politico post reports that Christine Daugherty, vice president of sustainable food production, Tyson Foods, stated that the company is committed to transparency and publicly reporting progress toward goals for reducing antibiotics in chicken. We’ll be keeping an eye out for Tyson’s next report and for additional insights that emerge from this month’s big events.