Antibiotics

There is a wonderful vegan bakery in Washington, DC. It is called “Sticky Fingers” and it is located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of the city. Once a week, I ceremonially give myself the pleasure of visiting this fine establishment and purchasing a few pastries to bring home with me. The menu is impressive by any standard, featuring a vast assortment of both sweet and savory foods. Cupcakes and cookies of every kind crowd the display window. Every kind of lunch food you can imagine, is available, from “egg salad”  to “chicken nuggets”. Today, I bought an oatmeal cookie sandwich, and I had a vegan grilled cheese sandwich. This was an ecstatic experience, as it’s been years since I last had grilled cheese! Sometimes, vegan foods are made so exactly to imitate their non-vegan equivalents, that I am put off by the effect. After years, I find myself no longer craving the taste of chicken or beef. But some vegans do prefer their food to be “dead ringers”. A few weeks ago, I visited the vegan fast food restaurant in Boulder, VG Burger, on the corner of Broadway and Arapahoe. I adore their many offerings, and highly recommend everyone stop in for a veggie burger. This particular day, however, I ordered a “chicken” sandwich, and it came out tasting like real chicken! I was very uncomfortable, and would definitely have asked to confirm it was vegetable-based had I not already been sure of VG’s policies. Really, the only food I wish to be accurately mimicked, is dessert, because I do have a sweet tooth, and when I wasn’t vegan, pastries and cookies were always my favorite at any table, any time of the day. I am happy to say that vegan baking has been elevated to an art form and I frequently enjoy desserts that are every bit the equal of those made with milk, eggs, and butter. 

But I digress! As I was on my way to Sticky Fingers, I entered the Metro Station at Capitol South to take the train to Columbia Heights, and I noticed as I went underground, that a new ad campaign had replaced the old on the walls of the station. This new campaign consisted of multiple billboards with farm animals, and the words on each poster quoted facts about the use of antibiotics to treat factory farmed livestock. The gist was this: that 70% of the antibiotics manufactured in our country go to treat animals in factory farms, rather than people in hospitals and doctors offices. I am certain these ads were devised by an animal rights organization, because this is a pillar argument for veganism.

Owing to the crowded and unsanitary conditions in which livestock are raised, animals frequently succumb to illness and disease. You may recall the large-scale beef recall of one year ago, in which the USDA cautioned consumers against eating beef from California, where meat from “downed animals” had made it into the food supply and onto store shelves. The recall resulted in state-level legislation mandating that ”downed animals” (those too enfeebled by disease to stand), not be converted to food supply. In reality, this sort of thing happens all the time, though perhaps not so publicly as it did last year. In order to inoculate livestock against the spread of disease, farmers administer massive amounts of antibiotics to ward off illness until the cow or the chicken or the pig, is ready for slaughter. Antibiotics effectively “mask” underlying disease, which surfaces at a disturbing rate in crowded feedlots. The preemptive use of medicines against the inveitable spread of disease, has a disastrous effect beyond the cost analysis: our antibiotics are actually becoming less effective in human subjects because they are being overused in animal subjects. By the time meat arrives on consumer plates, it has been dosed who knows how many times to prevent the onset of disease. After a while, bacteria forms immunity to these drugs, and antibiotic-resistant strains develop. 

I was happy to see this information dispatched so well in plain sight. It was impossible to miss as Metro riders descended the escalator to the platform. Whoever devised the campaign deserves a round of applause, as it will raise this important issue to the consciousness of those who might not have considered yet another downside to the factory farming industry.