Overuse of antibiotics for healthy farm animals was the topic of a dinner and discussion at Haymarket Grill on August 25 in Eau Claire, hosted by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming (www.saveantibiotics.org/).

Andrew Werthmann, Wisconsin organizer for the Pew Campaign and an Eau Claire City Council member, gathered local farmers, policy leaders, and local/organic food advocates to enjoy a hearty meal of local and organic food, and receive their support for legislation on the federal level to stop the routine use of nontherapeutic antibiotic use in animals, called The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA, H.R. 1549, S. 619).

Industrial agriculture has increasingly used antibiotics to promote growth and efficiency, but advocates of the legislation such as public health experts and local farmers in attendance said antibiotics should only be given to sick animals because antibiotic resistant bacteria have proven to develop with such overuse, causing major human health concerns.

“Who wants to go to the hospital and have an incurable wound? Clearly antibiotic resistance is a serious problem,” said Crispin Pierce, a professor of environmental public health at UW-Eau Claire. “I think the PAMTA Act is a huge step forward.”