Recently announced antibiotics rule means little to beef producers because they took it out of feed, water years ago

FDA announces finalization of voluntary guidance on antibiotic misuse in livestock industry
▻http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/akar/fda_announces_finalization_of.html

[FDA] doesn’t do much: It’s voluntary. As I have blogged about before, the guidance is voluntary. It asks drug manufacturers to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics to speed up animal growth. The livestock industry accounts for 80% of their antibiotic sales. Do we really think the pharmaceutical industry is going to voluntarily walk away from such a big chunk of its customer base? I don’t see that happening.

Via @bittman

The F.D.A.’s Not-Really-Such-Good-News
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/bittman-the-fdas-not-really-such-good-news.html

When I asked Representative Louise Slaughter — who happens to be a microbiologist, and is among the few in Congress with both the knowledge and spine to call out the F.D.A. — whether the agency had the authority to ban antibiotics for any use except direct treatment, she barely let me finish my question before exclaiming, “Of course they do.” [...]

[Drug] companies are O.K. with this new “guidance,” because it’s so benign it won’t affect their bottom lines. In a Wall Street Journal piece, Jeff Simmons, the president of Eli Lilly’s “animal-health division,” was quoted as saying, “We do not see this announcement being a material event.” [...]

In fact, the worst thing about the new guidelines may be that they’re seen as a first step, and as such rule out a more meaningful one. (Center for a Livable Future’s Martin said to me, “My fear is now we won’t see anything new for a decade.”) It’s bad news masquerading as good news. The F.D.A. is claiming, “We’re controlling the use of antibiotics in animal production!” But it’s more like Congress declaring, “We’re raising the minimum wage!” and then appending “...by 10 cents an hour. And we’ll review the impact of this monumental change in three years!” [...]

As the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Mellon said to me, “This recommendation involves voluntarily giving up making money in the interest of public safety. Who does that in the United States? No one.”

l’industrie dit qu’elle a déjà changé depuis un bon moment, au moins dans le bœuf :
▻http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/recently-announced-antibiotics-rule-means-little-to-beef-producers-because/article_e100e766-6f30-11e3-b8be-001a4bcf887a.html