More Hospitals Are Ditching Antibiotics In The Meat They Serve

Every year some 2 million Americans get infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and 23,000 of them die from these superbugs. Superbugs are mostly a hospital problem: They're where these pathogens are often born and spread, and where the infected come for help. But hospitals are not where the majority of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used. Food and Drug Administration data show that 62 percent of antibiotics important for human health are sold to food animal producers and used on farms. And in December, the agency noted that antibiotics for use on the farm increased in 2014, including antibiotics important in human medicine. 

Concern about the livestock industry's overuse of antibiotics has led a number of health care institutions to start choosing meat from animals raised without antibiotics whenever they can. According to Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit that's helping the health care industry on this issue, more than 400 U.S. hospitals are working toward a goal of making 20 percent of their meat purchases "antibiotic-free." And around a dozen hospitals have already switched the majority of their chicken purchases to "antibiotic-free." And around a dozen hospitals have already switched the majority of their chicken purchases to antibiotic-free.

"Health care is really voicing their demand for [antibiotic-free meat] products," says Hillary Bisnett, a food expert for Practice Greenhealth and Health Care Without Harm. "Hospitals understand antibiotic resistance, and they're being asked to steward their own use of antibiotics. So it's very easy for them to say, 'Livestock producers need to be doing their part, too.' " ...