What we ingest can either sustain us or cause sickness. Not long ago, I explored how food consumption influences the likelihood of colorectal cancer. But what about food production?
Across the planet, we are observing the rise of cheap meat, largely driven by demand from a expanding middle class that finally can afford poultry and red meat, which were previously unaffordable. Approximately 45% of global consumption growth is occurring in nations with rising economies such as India, China, Brazil, the Philippines and Indonesia. Poultry is set to take an increasingly large share of that expansion, projected to grow by 21% by 2034, because it is relatively cheap, widely acceptable and requires fewer resources per kilogram than red meat. In the next decade, it is projected that chicken will supply 45% of the dietary protein eaten from animal-based foods.
However this has costs. With limited land and tight schedules, the solution in many countries has been to use antibiotics at scale. This isn’t just to treat illness but also as a preventative measure to prevent disease in overpopulated environments. And, administering antimicrobials causes livestock to grow faster, although scientists aren’t sure exactly why. This situation means that, in contrast to their use for humans—where antibiotics are almost always given to treat illness—their application in agriculture is much more widespread and uncontrolled. Research monitoring their consumption suggest that 73% of all antimicrobials sold globally are used in animals raised for food.
This massive misuse is causing a increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. As an illustration, colistin resistance, a “last-resort antibiotic”, first developed in E coli bacteria that then contaminated swine. The bacteria was afterwards detected in swine handlers. Only required are air travel and global travel networks for these pathogens to spread globally. And now, resistant strains have been discovered not only in hospitals in the Far East but across the world.
What does this mean for an individual sitting in a GP clinic or a hospital in the UK? It means that infections that were once simple to cure—such as ear infections, UTIs or surgical site infections—become untreatable even after a course of antimicrobials. It implies that operations such as caesarean sections, hip replacements and oncology treatments that rely on immunosuppression all become more dangerous. And while new antibiotics are technically possible to create, the pipeline is lengthy and costly. We must conserve the tools we have.
The remedies to this issue can exclusively come from transforming worldwide agriculture. Admittedly, the United Kingdom has made significant progress in curtailing antimicrobial use in livestock. Distribution of antibiotics for animals destined for consumption has dropped by 59% since 2014. The application of this last-resort drug is now virtually nonexistent. The use of highest-priority antimicrobials has dropped to under 0.5% of all animal antibiotic sales. Moreover, research by several EU bodies indicated that after antimicrobial consumption in agriculture was cut by nearly half between 2014 and 2021, antibiotic resistance in E coli across the bloc also began to decline.
But just focusing on the UK or EU is a drop in the bucket. If the major emerging economies are part of the conversation on how meat is produced, we continue to be just as vulnerable to drug-resistant infections. The difficulty is that moving towards alternative farming methods requires more space and duration: making meat even more expensive in countries with large populations can quickly trigger public protests, political backlash and frustration. The medical necessity is evident, but this must be weighed with concerns over nutritional access, financial factors and public demand.
Climate scientists have long warned about the environmental costs of the current global food system, whether it’s greenhouse gases, biodiversity loss, or forest clearing. But these consequences often seem distant and theoretical, especially for individuals struggling with cost-of-living pressures or worried about immediate healthcare access.
Antibiotic resistance is tangible. Virtually all people has used antimicrobials at one time or another, and we can envision what would occur if their infection-clearing effect was suddenly switched off. Food production, health and climate are all connected. How pig meat is farmed in Asia influences whether your child’s antibiotics work in Scotland. Whether a female patient in Lagos survives a C-section is linked to how chickens are raised in South America.
Unless we address these widespread, world-spanning challenges, such as how our diet is sourced and how we use our existing drugs, we risk losing something precious: the ability to cure bacterial diseases that we take for granted today.
