Hollywood Heavyweights Call for Legislation to Stop Abuse of Antibiotics on Factory Farms

Today, Food & Water Watch released a new public service announcement featuring Hollywood celebrities calling for legislation to end the abuse of antibiotics on factory farms. 

According to Food & Water Watch, an estimated 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used in the agricultural sector and most of them are routinely fed to animals to make them grow faster, leading to the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The Food and Drug Administration has known about the problem of antibiotics misuse since at least 1977, but has not required factory farms to stop this dangerous practice. 

The public service announcement features the following quotes from celebrities:

• Raphael Sbarge: “Well known antibiotics are proving less and less effective every year, and people across America are starting to wonder why.”  
• Ed Begley, Jr.: “According to the Centers for Disease Control, 23,000 Americans die each year because of these superbugs.”
• Lance Bass: “Even if you don’t eat meat, or live near a factory farm, the failure of antibiotics impacts you.”
• Frances Fisher: “As long as big agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies can turn a profit pumping animals with antibiotics, these superbugs will continue to grow.”

All celebrities in the video are board members of the Environmental Media Association.

“Powerful industries are using their political power to weaken any attempt at regulation, despite scientific evidence that factory farms are contributing to the ineffectiveness of antibiotics,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “Factory farms aren’t just dirty—they are literally a public health hazard, and we need legislation to protect these lifesaving medicines for the rest of us.”

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