Ca. Governor vetoes livestock antibiotics bill

State Sen. Jerry Hill’s legislation seeking to restrict antibiotic use in farm animals was vetoed by the governor last week. While insisting he was committed to reducing livestock antibiotic use, Gov. Jerry Brown cast the bill as redundant in a concise press release. He noted the bill would have codified a voluntary Federal Drug Administration standard to phase out antibiotic use. Most pharmaceutical companies and some livestock producers have already pledged to adhere to the new standard, he wrote. The veto comes despite overwhelming support for the bill in both legislative houses. There was not a single vote cast against it. Hill expressed disappointment, but he pledged to give it another try next year. “(Brown’s) own Department of Food and Agriculture supported the bill, and everyone else in the field supported it,” he said. “We’ll continue to work on it and look at what could be done differently.” Antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern medicine and they have saved countless lives by serving as a ready defense against pathogens. Even though antibiotics are hailed as a savior in many instances, their main use these days has little to do with human health. Since the 1950s, ranchers have been feeding antibiotics to their livestock and poultry to fatten them up. Exactly how it works is not fully understood, but the implications are clear. Animal food laced with antibiotics is regarded as one of the chief reasons why broiler chickens, for example, weigh about 50 percent more today than in 1955...more