Seattle City Council Discusses Farm Animal Use of  Antibiotics

Seattle City Council Discusses Farm Animal Use of Antibiotics

At next week's Seattle City Council meeting, farm animal antibiotics is on the agenda. Why in the world would such a topic make it to agenda of a metropolitan city?

Personally I can't imagine how much knowledge any of their council would have concerning animal agriculture. I read through their bios to see if any of the nine council members had any ag background — one raises chickens in (I'm guessing in the backyard) in Fremont, and another has a "garden-in-progress". However, they will be discussing passing a resolution supporting a nationwide ban on the misuse of antibiotics in farm animals based on what seems to me a lot of mistruths.

Washington Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President Jack Field will be at the Seattle Council Meeting to hopefully enlighten those city folks about good animal husbandry practices.

Field: "I'm planning on attending and testifying because I think it is very important to explain to the Seattle City Council just what it is and what it means to be a cattleman here in Washington state and a food producer. To explain first hand to the judicious use of antibiotics and how we go about raising animals here in Washington state. The idea that there is just this widespread abuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture in the livestock industry is absolutely absurd. The last thing I can afford to do is to just go out and blindly apply a product."

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