Cargill is Cutting Back on Antibiotic Use

For quite some time now, antibiotics have been a popular topic. People argue whether or not antibiotics should be used in livestock. Recently Cargill toke a stand on the issue by declaring that they are going to cut back on antibiotic use by 20%.

Cargill is one of the largest meat processors in the United States.  Cargill has four feedlots located in Texas, Colorado and Kansas. February 26th Cargill started eliminating 20% of the antibiotics they used. According to Agweek, they are only going to treat sick animals. They won't be using antibiotics for growth promotion. Cargill said this will affect about 1.2 million animals.

Cargill is practcing step 1 with the reduction of antibiotic use.

Cargill says they are trying to please consumer desire by eliminating the use of antibiotics. Consumers are worried about human bacteria becoming antibiotic resistant because of the antibiotics given to the livestock
.  They are hoping to ensure long term effectiveness in both human and animal antibiotics. 

On Cargill's website, they are claiming that this will meet the consumers needs. Consumers want antibiotic free meat. By reducing the amount of antibiotics used, they can help provide this to the consumers. Yet at the same time, they are making sure to practice animal welfare. They will give antibiotics to sick animals. But they will be sure to wait to process the animals until they have completed the withdrawal period. 

There are many organizations that are saying this isn't right for Cargill to do. However it seems that Cargill has a plan on how they will handle this. And after it is all said and done, hopefully reduce the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria affecting humans.