The substances we introduce into our bodies can either sustain us or cause sickness. Not long ago, I explored how food consumption impacts the likelihood of colon cancer. But what about agricultural practices?
Globally, we are witnessing the rise of low-cost animal protein, largely driven by consumer desire from a expanding affluent population that finally can afford poultry and red meat, which were once unaffordable. Roughly 45% of increased worldwide demand is taking place in nations with rising economies such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines. Poultry is set to take an increasingly large share of that expansion, projected to increase by 21% by 2034, because it is relatively cheap, widely acceptable and needs fewer resources per kilogram than beef or pork. By 2034, it is projected that chicken will supply 45% of the protein consumed from all meat sources.
However this has costs. With scarce acreage and intense time pressure, the solution in numerous nations has been to use antibiotics at scale. This isn’t just to address disease but also as a prophylactic to avoid sickness in overpopulated environments. And, administering antimicrobials makes farm animals to gain weight more rapidly, although researchers do not know the precise reason. All of this means that, in contrast to their use for humans—where antimicrobials are almost always prescribed to treat illness—their application in agriculture is much more widespread and uncontrolled. Research tracking their use suggest that 73% of all antimicrobials distributed globally are utilized in livestock production.
This massive misuse is causing a increase in drug-resistant bacteria. For example, colistin resistance, a “last-resort antibiotic”, initially emerged in E coli bacteria that then infected pigs. The bacteria was later found in pig farmers. All it takes are air travel and international transport for these microbes to circulate worldwide. And now, resistant strains have been discovered not only in medical facilities in China but around the globe.
What does this mean for someone sitting in a doctor’s office or a medical center in the UK? It means that bacterial illnesses that were once simple to cure—such as ear infections, UTIs or post-operative infections—become untreatable even after a course of antimicrobials. It means that operations such as C-sections, hip replacements and cancer therapies that rely on immunosuppression all become riskier. And while new antibiotics are feasible to create, the development process is lengthy and costly. We must preserve the tools we have.
The remedies to this problem can only come from transforming worldwide agriculture. Admittedly, the UK has achieved notable reductions in reducing antibiotics in farming. Sales of antibiotics for animals reared for food has declined by 59% over the past decade. The application of colistin is now effectively zero. The employment of critically important antibiotics has dropped to less than 0.5% of all animal antibiotic sales. Moreover, studies by several EU bodies suggested that after antibiotic use in agriculture was cut by nearly half between 2014 and 2021, antimicrobial resistance in E. coli bacteria across the bloc also started dropping.
But just focusing on the UK or EU is a drop in the bucket. If the major emerging economies are part of the conversation on how animal protein is produced, we remain just as susceptible to drug-resistant infections. The challenge is that moving towards different production practices requires more space and duration: making meat even more expensive in highly populated nations can quickly trigger public protests, political backlash and frustration. The health imperative is clear, but this needs to be balanced with considerations of nutritional access, economics and consumer expectations.
Climate scientists have long warned about the ecological impacts of the present worldwide agricultural model, whether it’s greenhouse gases, biodiversity loss, or forest clearing. But these effects often feel distant and abstract, especially for individuals facing cost-of-living pressures or concerned with immediate healthcare access.
Antibiotic resistance is concrete. Almost everyone has taken antibiotics at some point, and we can imagine what would happen if their infection-clearing effect was abruptly lost. Agriculture, medicine and the environment are all interlinked. How pork is farmed in Asia influences whether your offspring’s medication work in Edinburgh. Whether a woman in Lagos recovers from a C-section is linked to how chickens are raised in Brazil.
If we address these pervasive, global issues, such as how our food is produced and how we utilize our existing drugs, we risk losing something invaluable: the ability to cure bacterial diseases that we assume will always work now.
