Halloween is right around the corner, so I thought I'd share with you the scariest thing i've read since Stephen King's "The Stand."

Okay, maybe that's a bad comparison. The stuff that comes out of Stephen King's word processor is pathological. But if you recall, in the begining of "the Stand," there was a "Pandemic." "Captain Tripps" was Stephen King's Pathogen du-jour, circa 1978. A SuperFlu that makes April's "Swine Flu debauchle, look like a trip to Disney world.

Yep The articles I'm linking you to are going to scare you. You see, we don't just have to deal with the pathogens. We also have to contend with an evil empire of greedy people... STUPID, GREEDY People. 

It's pretty difficult to obtain antibiotics these days. Most MD's want some kind of proof that you have an infection before they'll prescribe them. They'll actually take a swab and culture it in a laboratory and wait for the results; Most will still give them provided you have at least 3 infection related symptoms, i.e temperature, swelling, pain, before they put their pen to paper. Most MD's are doing good in that aspect. They are trying to protect us.. from our own hypochondria and stupidity.   We've all heard the speech... Take the whole course, even if you're feeling better. Take the anitbiotics until the whole bottle is gone.

Rich, Greedy, Stupid, Agricultural moguls aparrently didn't read the memo and they don't have to play by the same rules. The result is astounding. Did you know that about 70% of the antibiotics used in the USA are given to Livestock?... Let me clarify that...  That is tens of millions of pounds of antibiotics given to livestock to PREVENT sickness.  Manufacturers put it in "Livestock Chow."  

A couple of years back, Steve and I had some chickens. It started with Steve bringing home some fertalized eggs and I kept these in the house under a heat lamp until they hatched. Wanting to be a good mother hen, I went up to the local feed store and asked about baby chick food. I finally asked what the difference was between the plain cracked corn, the layer feed and the baby chick starter feed. The salesman was honest. In the chick starter, The corn is ground a little finer, it has some "chick grit" (sand or tiny rough pebbles, so they can have some grindage in their gizzards,) and a Sh*tload of antibiotics.

Why give anitbiotics to animals that aren't sick? It's done to keep them from getting sick as they wallow in their own waste, living in horrible conditions. Keep their area clean, give them room to run and you'll have healthy animals. Those greedy agriculture moguls are doing it backasswards and it's contributing to the widespread problems with MRSA, probably contributes to things like the swine flu and it creates strains of these pathogens that cannot be killed by antibiotics. It's time to get angry people, it's time to change the way we grow & produce our food and it's already too late for some..

 By the way MRSA kills more people than AIDS, every year in the USA.

Read these articles. You too can be angry and disgusted. 

Next time I'll write about how Ozone Generators may just be the way to kill these pathogens...

Pathogens in our pork http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15kristof.html?scp=2&sq=&st=nyt

Our Pigs,Our Food, Our Health http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=&st=nyt

Hogging It  Hogging It!: Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/hogging-it-estimates-of.html#demo4

As always, feel free to post comments, I'd love to hear what you think.

Kerri