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A recent regulatory appeal from a dozen public health and farm worker coalitions is urging the EPA to discontinue allowing the use of antimicrobial agents on food crops across the US, citing antibiotic-resistant spread and illnesses to agricultural workers.

Farming Industry Uses Large Quantities of Antibiotic Pesticides

The farming industry sprays approximately 8m lbs of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on American food crops annually, with many of these substances prohibited in international markets.

“Every year US citizens are at elevated danger from dangerous bacteria and infections because human medicines are used on plants,” stated Nathan Donley.

Antibiotic Resistance Presents Significant Health Threats

The widespread application of antibiotics, which are critical for combating medical conditions, as crop treatments on produce threatens community well-being because it can cause drug-resistant microbes. In the same way, excessive application of antifungal agent pesticides can create fungal infections that are harder to treat with currently available medicines.

• Treatment-resistant diseases impact about 2.8 million individuals and lead to about thousands of mortalities annually.
• Regulatory bodies have linked “therapeutically critical antibiotics” authorized for pesticide use to antibiotic resistance, increased risk of pathogenic diseases and elevated threat of antibiotic-resistant staph.

Environmental and Health Impacts

Meanwhile, ingesting antibiotic residues on produce can disrupt the intestinal flora and raise the chance of long-term illnesses. These agents also contaminate water sources, and are considered to harm bees. Often poor and Latino farm workers are most exposed.

Frequently Used Antibiotic Pesticides and Industry Practices

Agricultural operations use antimicrobials because they eliminate bacteria that can ruin or destroy produce. One of the popular agricultural drugs is streptomycin, which is often used in clinical treatment. Figures indicate up to 125,000 pounds have been used on domestic plants in a one year.

Agricultural Sector Influence and Government Action

The petition is filed as the regulator faces demands to increase the application of medical antimicrobials. The bacterial citrus greening disease, carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, is severely affecting orange groves in southeastern US.

“I recognize their desperation because they’re in difficult circumstances, but from a societal standpoint this is certainly a obvious choice – it must not occur,” the expert commented. “The fundamental issue is the significant challenges generated by using medical drugs on edible plants greatly exceed the agricultural problems.”

Other Solutions and Long-term Outlook

Advocates propose simple crop management steps that should be tested first, such as wider crop placement, developing more disease-resistant varieties of plants and locating sick crops and rapidly extracting them to stop the diseases from propagating.

The petition gives the regulator about 5 years to answer. In the past, the regulator prohibited chloropyrifos in answer to a similar formal request, but a court overturned the regulatory action.

The regulator can enact a restriction, or has to give a reason why it will not. If the regulator, or a subsequent government, fails to respond, then the coalitions can take legal action. The legal battle could require over ten years.

“We’re playing the long game,” the advocate concluded.