The sound of coughing pigs -- USA: From industrialized agriculture to manufactured hazards, 1949-1967. Picking one's poisons: antibiotics and the public -- Chemical cornucopia: antibiotics on the farm -- Toxic priorities: antibiotics and the FDA -- Britain: From rationing to gluttony, 1945-1969. Fusing concerns: antibiotics and the British public -- Bigger, better, faster: antibiotics and British farming -- Typing resistance: antibiotic regulation in Britain -- USA: The problem of plenty, 1967-2013. Marketplace environmentalism: antibiotics, public concerns, and consumer solutions -- Light-green reform: antibiotic change on American farms -- Statutory defeat: voluntarism and the limits of FDA power -- Britain: from gluttony to fear, 1970-2018. Between Swann patriotism and BSE: antibiotics in the public sphere -- Persistent infrastructures: antibiotic reform and British farming -- Swann song: British antibiotic policy after 1969 -- Antibiotics unleashed.
Summary:
"Pyrrhic Progress analyses over half a century of antibiotic use, regulation, and resistance in US and British food production. Mass-introduced after 1945, antibiotics helped revolutionize post-war agriculture. Food producers used antibiotics to prevent and treat disease, protect plants, preserve food, and promote animals' growth. Many soon became dependent on routine antibiotic use to sustain and increase production. The resulting growth of antibiotic infrastructures came at a price. Critics blamed antibiotics for leaving dangerous residues in food, enabling bad animal welfare, and selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, which could no longer be treated with antibiotics. Pyrrhic Progress reconstructs the complicated negotiations that accompanied this process of risk prioritization between consumers, farmers, and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Unsurprisingly, solutions differed: while Europeans implemented precautionary antibiotic restrictions to curb AMR, consumer concerns and cost-benefit assessments made US regulators focus on curbing drug residues in food. The result was a growing divergence of antibiotic stewardship and a rise of AMR. Kirchhelle's comprehensive analysis of evolving non-human antibiotic use and the historical complexities of antibiotic stewardship provides important insights for current debates on the global burden of AMR."-- Provided by publisher
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.