June 21: UPDATE below.
Come join us for our second monthly…
Fair Food Fight Night
Tuesday, June 22 at 7:00 pm
Cheeky Monkey Deli, 525 Selby, St. Paul
The Fight: Superbugs versus Affordable Food
Some experts argue that antibiotics are overused in agriculture (pdf), that the drugs we regulate in clinics and hospitals are used with little to no oversight in U.S. dairy and meat production. In fact, by oversuing antibiotics, we may be creating drug-resistant microbes that will render antibiotics useless in our lifetime.
Meanwhile, many agricultural professionals argue that antibiotics are necessary tools in maintaining good animal welfare practices, and that banning or over-regulating antibiotics would lead to higher meat and milk prices.
Who’s right? No easy answers in this one, so we’ll be grilling two experts on the matter.
Special Guests
Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA
and
Thom Petersen, Director of Government Relations, Minnesota Farmers Union
Hope you’ll join us for good drinks and deep thinks about antibiotics in food.
UPDATE
I’m excited to announce a late addition to our Fair Food Fight Night discussion on antibiotics.
A fifty-six-year Minnesota dairyman Greg Jans will round out our panel of experts tomorrow night. Greg uses antibiotics therapeutically on his dairy (along with synthetic growth hormone rBST) and feels the FDA has good science behind its current antibiotic regulations. Greg runs a 600-head dairy with his son in Grove City, MN, and has been part of the dairy and livestock leadership in the state for many years. He’s currently the Vice President of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association and serves as chairman on the MMPA’s Public Policy Committee.
The luchador guarantee — there will be no echo chambers at Fair Food Fight Night…
Also, if you’e on Twitter, @completelydark will be livetweeting Fair Food Fight Night. Follow him, and get the blow by blow.
