Controlling Nature 3injection like those given to prisoners on death row. I expected the calf to
die shortly. The possibility of implicating my brother crossed my mind.
But as the older son, I would be the one who would be held to account.
For the rest of the day, I rehearsed my explanation. When I checked
on the calf later that evening, to my surprise he was marginally bet-
ter. Over the next several days, the calf received more attention from
me than any other before or since. When my parents came home (and
long before the military started using it) my strategy changed to one of
“don’t ask, don’t tell.”
I lucked out. I had known just enough to be dangerous. Antibiotics
interact with microscopic organisms to alter nature and you can never
be certain what will follow. The calf had taught me that antibiotics are
not to be trifled with.
The rollout of penicillin to the general population in 43 marked
a new era in treating bacterial illness. Before then, it was all too com-
mon to survive battlefield wounds or surgery, only to be felled by infec-
tion. Almost overnight, antibiotics proved to be an astounding medical
breakthrough, earning the label of the “crown jewels of medicine.” Two
decades later, the surgeon general declared, “The time has come to close
the book on infectious disease. We have basically wiped out infection in
the United States.” Few at the time realized that immunity to penicillin
had already started three years prior to its rollout.
Antibiotics were initially confined to treating infection, in both
humans and animals. Then in 5 , and quite by accident, scientists
discovered that adding antibiotics to livestock feed accelerated their
growth; their use in animal production exploded. Exactly how they pro-
mote growth is a mystery, even today. What proved less mysterious
was mounting evidence of bacteria thwarting the drugs intended to kill
them. As scientific concern increased that people would “find them-
selves back in the pre-antibiotic Middle Ages,” the FDA tried to rein in
usage. But a Congress heavily influenced by agricultural interests would
have none of it.
Today, percent of all antibiotics consumed in the United States
are destined for animals and agriculture. While farm animals consume
the majority, antibiotics are also used in aquaculture, honeybees, and
companion animals, and they are even sprayed on fruit trees like apples,
pears, and peaches. Antibiotics paved the way to raise large numbers of