EU ban of growth-promoting antibiotics (GPAs) in farming.

The EU is working to improve farming practices by banning the use of growth-promoting antibiotics and finding alternatives for them such as plants and plant extracts.

EU project promotes safer farming practices and healthier food

From the end of 2005, the EU will ban the use of growth-promoting antibiotics (GPAs) in farming. Producers of pigs, chickens and fish are currently those most dependent on GPAs, and the antibiotic withdrawal will have a massive impact on their farming practices. It is therefore essential that substitutes for GPAs be identified if EU producers are to maintain profitability and competitiveness against overseas producers where such restrictions do not exist.

Speaking to CORDIS News, John Wallace, the project coordinator of the REPLACE project from the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, explained the reason behind the EU's decision.

'There is evidence that, for at least one antibiotic used for growth promotion in farm animals, a transmissible drug resistance factor arose that jumped to bacteria, which caused infection in man. The human infection would no longer respond to structurally related therapeutic antibiotics used to fight infection in man. Thus, in order to avoid this potential threat to antibiotic therapy in humans, the EU decided to ban all GPAs from the end of 2005,' said Dr Wallace.

This is good news for those of us who are tired of all of the hormones and chemicals going into our food.
I guess this may eventually extend to a ban on imports of meat from animals raised on those antibiotics.

[edit on 11-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

Sounds good to me, they need to leave out all drugs from the animals and leave our food natural so that little girls can stop getting breasts at 9,10 & 11yrs old and the teenagers can stop having such a beefed up sex drive for such a young age 12 & 13 etc from all these chemicals in the food.

Here in the UK you can find a lot of food without GM's even in your local TESCO ( thats like the US Dominicks or Safeway) oh the UK got even Safeway heh. I think its great but organic food in the states is damm expensive.

Yeah natural organic food here is expensive, you have to have money and be a real health nut to afford it. The cheaper the food is, the more it's been modified.