Beyond Animal Rights, the Antibiotics Battle

I’ve reported in Iraq and Afghanistan and walked through a SARS ward in China at the height of that deadly epidemic. But my scariest moment as a reporter came this summer, when I visited an egg farm in Ohio to write about the debate over factory farming and animal confinement. I’m dangerously allergic to feathers, and I had to will myself (aided by a Benadryl) to walk into a barn filled with 168,000 hens.

Brian C. Frank for The New York Times Pigs near Ralston, Iowa, are given antibiotics in their feed. The blue spot indicates they are ready for market.

As it turned out, I was astonished at how well the ventilation system worked to keep the air clear; I didn’t suffer more than some sniffles. That was just one of the impressive features of an operation that yielded millions of eggs every day. If only it didn’t also involve cramming all those birds for life into tiers of cages — an efficient production method that has brought the wrath of animal rights activists and, in several states, new restrictions on caging.

Then last month I toured a large pork farm in Iowa while reporting on the feeding of antibiotics to healthy animals, which health officials want to curb because it breeds drug-resistant bacteria that threaten humans. I don’t think I’m particularly allergic to pigs — although, since I haven’t had to cope with pillows and jackets stuffed with pig down, how would I know? But I was astonished by the absence of foul smells. Living on slatted floors that let the manure fall through, the pigs, for better or worse, never wallow in mud or garbage

Read more at The New York Times