that these residues are harmless when ingested
by humans.
Antibiotics
Efficient industrial-scale meat production
requires that large numbers of animals be
raised in close confinement, a situation that
favors the rapid spread of disease. In order to
control animal pathogens, many producers
routinely add antibiotics to their feed. This
practice turns out to have the additional
advantage of increasing growth rate and feed
efficiency.
Antibiotic residues in meat are minute and
apparently insignificant. However, there’s
good evidence that the use of antibiotics in
livestock has encouraged the evolution of
antibiotic-resistant campylobacter and
salmonella bacteria, and that these bacteria
have caused illness in U.S. consumers.
Because resistant bacteria are more difficult