Use of 8m pounds of antibiotics and antifungals a year leads to superbugs and damages human health, lawsuit claims

Use of 8m pounds of antibiotics and antifungals a year leads to superbugs and damages human health, lawsuit claims

A new legal petition filed by a dozen public health and farm worker groups demands the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stop allowing farms to spray antibiotics on food crops in the US because they are probably causing superbugs to flourish and sickening farm workers.

The agricultural industry sprays about 8m pounds of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US food crops annually, many of which are banned in other countries.

The overuse of antibiotics, which are essential to treating human disease, as pesticides on fruits and vegetables threatens public health because it can lead to superbug bacteria that are antibiotic-resistant. Similarly, overuse of antifungal pesticides can lead to fungal infections that are less treatable with medical currently available drugs, the groups say.

  • The_v@lemmy.world
    1·
    22 hours ago

    Bacterial disease on crops are very hard to control. Traditionally there is not much l chemistry that can control them effectively. This is especially true on tree fruit where bacterial disease can cause a lot of damage. Bacterial diseases on annual crops from seed are usually controlled by phytosanitary procedures (like acid seed extraction in tomatoes).

    So if you got an apple or an orange grown in the U.S. it likely had some antibiotic sprayed on it.

    https://pnwhandbooks.org/node/30596/print

    The traditional control has been copper. Copper unfortunately sticks around permanently and builds up to some pretty toxic levels.

    https://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/pdfs/pse/2024/07/02.pdf

    If you eat organic, it’s had a shit ton of copper sprayed on it.