🔗 Share this article

A fresh formal request from twelve health advocacy and farm worker coalitions is urging the EPA to cease authorizing the use of antibiotics on edible plants across the US, highlighting antibiotic-resistant spread and illnesses to farm laborers.

Agricultural Industry Uses Millions of Pounds of Antibiotic Pesticides

The crop production uses about 8m lbs of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US produce every year, with several of these chemicals prohibited in foreign countries.

“Annually Americans are at increased threat from dangerous bacteria and diseases because medical antibiotics are applied on produce,” commented a public health advocate.

Antibiotic Resistance Creates Serious Health Threats

The overuse of antibiotics, which are vital for combating human disease, as pesticides on fruits and vegetables threatens public health because it can lead to antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Similarly, overuse of antifungal pesticides can cause fungal infections that are more resistant with present-day medicines.

• Antibiotic-resistant diseases sicken about 2.8 million individuals and result in about thousands of fatalities per year.
• Public health organizations have associated “clinically significant antimicrobials” authorized for crop application to drug resistance, greater chance of pathogenic diseases and elevated threat of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Ecological and Public Health Effects

Additionally, eating chemical remnants on crops can disrupt the digestive system and raise the risk of persistent conditions. These substances also contaminate drinking water supplies, and are thought to affect bees. Often low-income and minority agricultural laborers are most exposed.

Common Antibiotic Pesticides and Agricultural Practices

Agricultural operations use antimicrobials because they destroy pathogens that can damage or destroy plants. One of the most frequently used antibiotic pesticides is a medical drug, which is commonly used in healthcare. Data indicate up to 125k lbs have been sprayed on American produce in a one year.

Citrus Industry Influence and Regulatory Action

The legal appeal coincides with the Environmental Protection Agency faces pressure to increase the use of medical antimicrobials. The bacterial citrus greening disease, carried by the insect pest, is severely affecting citrus orchards in Florida.

“I appreciate their critical situation because they’re in dire straits, but from a societal point of view this is definitely a no-brainer – it must not occur,” the expert said. “The bottom line is the massive challenges caused by spraying medical drugs on produce significantly surpass the farming challenges.”

Alternative Solutions and Future Prospects

Advocates propose simple agricultural measures that should be implemented initially, such as increasing plant spacing, breeding more hardy strains of plants and identifying infected plants and promptly eliminating them to prevent the diseases from propagating.

The legal appeal provides the regulator about half a decade to answer. In the past, the regulator outlawed chloropyrifos in reaction to a parallel legal petition, but a judge overturned the agency's prohibition.

The agency can impose a ban, or is required to give a justification why it won’t. If the regulator, or a subsequent government, declines to take action, then the organizations can sue. The legal battle could take over ten years.

“We are engaged in the long game,” the advocate concluded.