The end of antibiotics in ethanol?

Used under creative commons license from MUExtension417.

These calves are eating dried distillers grains that may contain antibiotic residues.

Over the last three years, IATP has written numerous reports and blogs about why antibiotic use in ethanol production is unwise and unnecessary. The antibiotics that ethanol producers use to control bacteria during production end up in a co-product called distillers grains (DGS), which are sold as livestock feed. We’ve argued that feeding livestock this additional, non-therapeutic antibiotic dose may contribute to antibiotic resistance, a problem that poses huge threats to public health. We’ve also argued that antibiotic use in ethanol production is unnecessary—effective, cost-competitive alternatives are readily available and widely used by the industry, but our common-good appeals haven’t stopped drug companies from unlawfully selling antibiotics to ethanol producers, or producers from using them.

That might now change.

Today, we’re releasing the results of an investigation into the FDA’s failure to regulate antibiotic sales to the ethanol industry. For at least the last five years, drug companies have been marketing unapproved antibiotics to ethanol producers,  a practice, according to the FDA, that is prohibited by federal code. The FDA knows about it, but has done nothing. Drug companies know too, but continue to market these antibiotics.

» Read the full post

URGENT: Act today to ensure Senate's Farm Bill supports healthy food for all

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has finally issued its draft of the 2012 Farm Bill. Despite some good provisions supporting the growing and consumption of healthy food, the Senate’s draft doesn’t level the playing field for small and midsize family farmers who produce fruits and vegetables and makes significant cuts to food stamp (SNAP) benefits for low income people. The Senate’s draft incentivizes large farms to grow a few commodity crops (primarily corn and soybeans) through a revamped crop insurance program, without taking any steps to manage the overproduction of these crops.  The bill does not go nearly far enough in supporting farmers who grow healthy food for local and regional food systems. 

It’s URGENT that you contact committee members TODAY about the key healthy food provisions that are still missing, because the Senate Agriculture Committee will begin work on the bill tomorrow. Write or call members of the Senate Agriculture Committee today and ask them to include the following key provisions:

Full funding for the SNAP program (food stamps) that protects against hunger and improves nutrition by providing critical resources to vulnerable people. Cuts to SNAP will only make it harder for millions of families to afford a nutritious diet.

» Read the full post

Ethanol, antibiotics and what we don’t know

Used under creative commons license from MUExtension417.

A by-product of ethanol production is something called distillers’ grains, a corn mash that’s typically dried and sold to livestock producers.

Alarming research coming out of the University of Minnesota raises concerns over the public health impacts of antibiotic use in ethanol production. 

Ethanol producers frequently add antibiotics like penicillin and erythromycin to fermentation tanks to control bacteria (bacteria compete with yeast for sugar, and too much bacteria can decrease ethanol yields). These antibiotics end up in animal feed. A by-product of ethanol production is something called distillers’ grains, a corn mash that’s typically dried and sold to livestock producers. In 2009, the FDA did extensive testing and found antibiotic residues in more than half the distillers’ grain samples they tested.

The ethanol industry played down the findings by contending that the antibiotic residues were almost certainly rendered inactive during the drying and finishing process, and therefore, not a concern (the FDA did not test for antimicrobial activity).

Now, however, new research calls that contention into question. A recent article in National Hog Farmer, a trade publication, reported on research by graduate student Devan Paulus and Professor Jerry Shurson at the University of Minnesota. Paulus and Shurson tested distillers’ grain samples from plants throughout the U.S. and found active antibiotic residues. The data, which has not yet been published but were confirmed in a call I made to Paulus, indicated antibiotic residues in all 117 samples tested, and antibiotic residue active enough to inhibit E. coli growth in one of the samples.

» Read the full post

Casting a ballot for local food

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree announcing the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act in October 2011.

Last November, Rep. Chellie Pingree, an organic farmer from Maine, introduced federal legislation that could have a profound impact on local food system development across the United States.  The proposed legislation would make it easier for schools and institutional buyers to purchase locally grown foods and requires that various federal grants and loans be made available for local food system development.  Other components would help food and farm entrepreneurs add-value to locally grown foods through the creation of processing, distribution, aggregation and marketing businesses. Identical legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.  More than 65 Members of the House and Senate have now co-sponsored the legislation.

At a time when farmers and rural economies are struggling for survival and schools are trying to combat childhood obesity, the Pingree/Brown legislation (known as the “Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act”) can enhance farmer profitability, grow rural and urban economies through local food business development, and connect consumers with nutritious, locally grown food.

Minnesota has been a national leader in revitalizing our local and regional food system through new farmers markets, Farm to School and Farm to Hospital initiatives, healthy cornerstores, farmer engagement and new businesses that connect “farm to fork”.  Recently, 39 Minnesota organizations and businesses representing farm, food, consumer and health groups signed a letter endorsing the Pingree/Brown legislation.  Nationally, more than 220 organizations have endorsed the legislation.  We hope that you will join us.

» Read the full post