The Obama Administration did exactly that, turned a major forum on antibiotic resistance into a farce in just three easy steps.

The forum was a day-long event in Washington D.C. on June 2. It convened over 150 key leaders from public and private human and animal health organizations, major producers, packers and processors of meat and poultry products, CEOs and senior vice presidents. They were all there.

Well, almost all.

First major gaffe, in my opinion, was to leave Keep Antibiotics Working off the invitation list. KAW includes major consumer and environmental groups that have pushed hard to get the animal ag industry to change its practices and decrease antibiotic use in healthy animals.

Susan Vaughn Grooters, a policy analyst for KAW, said the coalition “remains concerned that the White House’s efforts may provide cover for these sectors as they resist real change.”

Speaking of “real change”, the White House announced that all federal cafeterias would soon be serving only meat and poultry raised with the judicious use of antibiotics and Smithfield announced they will prohibit the use of medically important antibiotics to promote growth.

News flash. This is old news, as in FDA’s Guidance 209 and 213. Nothing new here.

No real change as a result of the summit. Just chest thumping and sound bites for the media.

Second major gaffe, in my opinion, was to separate animal and human health players not just into separate rooms, but into separate buildings in separate federal departments.

I was jealous I was not invited until I learned about this little quirk at the recent World Pork Expo where I talked with several who had been invited and attended.

It seems to me that if we are concerned about the interface between the use of antibiotics in animals and its effect on human health through the development of antibiotic resistance, the two groups should be dialoging and working together, as the National Institute for Animal Agriculture has tried to do in recent antibiotic use conferences.

But the really great big laugher gaffe?

At the meeting, John Holden, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, announced that the Presidential Food Service, which operates the White House Mess and serves workers from the Old Executive Office Building and their guests along with the President and his family, was committed to serving only meat and poultry that has been raised without antibiotics and hormones. I wonder if John P. understands that ionophores are antibiotics and that all animals produce their own hormones?

This statement deserves a whole blog of its own, but I will close by just asking those who have been in the business far longer than I have been involved one question.

Did not we, the U.S. government, ask the WTO to take action against the E.U.’s ban on beef from the U.S. that had been supplemented with hormone implants?

And now we will be banning that same meat in the WH Mess.

What a mess.

How an important forum on antibiotics can turn into a farce

Join for free* to continue reading.