4 Unexpected Consequences
animals in confined spaces. From an average of 355 chickens per farm
in 5 , large operations now produce over 5 , birds annually;
and a handful of corporations control thousands of operations. Simi-
lar trends have redefined pork production, and beef is not far behind.
Using antibiotics, nutrition, and genetics, farmers raise animals to put
on more weight more quickly. In 25 , it took 2 days to raise a 2.5 pound
chicken. Today, a five-pound bird takes less than fifty days.
Proponents of agricultural drugs argue that they made food more
affordable. But this success overshadows an inconvenient truth that
not all bacteria are being killed. An antibiotic that is . percent
effective still leaves one in one million organisms alive. A single re-
sistant bacterium capable of dividing every thirty minutes, like E. coli,
can become a population of over 2.5 trillion in one day. Antibiotics are
not killing off entire pathogen populations. Rather, antibiotics are cre-
ating hardier bacteria, genetically resistant to drugs that once elimi-
nated them.
So long as new classes of antibiotics were rolling off pharmaceutical
manufacturing lines, resistance was easily ignored. A generation after
penicillin was brought to market, thirteen new classes of antibiotics had
been introduced. Confidence in newer, better drugs ran high. If one
class of antibiotics did not work, another one would. But pharmaceuti-
cal companies were moving on. Developing drugs for treating chronic,
lifelong illnesses like cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure was
more lucrative; after all, antibiotics are taken for a couple of weeks, then
stopped. In the last half century, only two new classes of antibiotics have
come to market.
With fewer choices available, say hello to “superbugs”—bacteria
resistant to multiple antibiotics. Superbugs, found in foods, hospitals,
and playgrounds, are now a permanent addition to the environment.
They are to be feared. One called MRSA (pronounced “mirsa”) invades
from a scratch, small cut, or scraped knee, then floods the bloodstream
or lungs with deadly toxins. Potent yet highly toxic antibiotics have be-
come the treatment option of last resort, where the goal is to kill the
bacteria before the antibiotics kill the patient. Each year, MRSA ac-
counts for an estimated eighty thousand invasive infections and eleven
thousand related deaths.