Livestock Fed Persuasive Essay

Remember that nice juicy steak you had for dinner last night, well chances are that, that steak contained antibiotics that are the cause of many of the superbugs in the news lately. There is a lot of controversy around the use of antibiotics in livestock and the risks or benefits of using it, but for the most part the risks outweigh the benefits. Our large corporate ranch in northwestern Montana should not use antibiotics in our feed because most of it wouldn’t help the livestock anyway, antibiotics are already over used, and there is a growing market for antibiotic free meat. The use of antibiotics is potentially a waste of money. According to Grace Communications, 2013 approximately 75% of antibiotics fed to animals are never fully digested
or used before they pass through the body and enter the environment. This means that when you purchase antibiotics and feed your livestock with it you lose approximately 75% of your investment. This shows why most antibiotics wouldn't help your livestock in the first place,but that's not the only reason antibiotics should not be used.
Many companies already overuse antibiotics in their feed which has a track record of making antibiotics no longer work. This is supported by evidence shown in Grace Communications, 2013 that basically states that because of the overuse of these antibiotics studies by Dr. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization show that there are more and more superbugs and at this rate relatively soon there will be little to none effective antibiotics left. This evidence shows that we shouldn't use antibiotic infused feed because of the potential health risks to humans. Antibiotics are already overused and this is clear evidence for that, not only will we help protect humans from superbugs by avoiding antibiotics we will also, because of the current Healthy Food trend, potentially bring positive press to our company. The market for antibiotic free food is growing and people are willing to pay higher prices for “healthy meat”. In a recent blog by Kelly, 2012, the author outlined a poll done by consumer reports which showed that 86% off respondents said that they would have meat and poultry free from antibiotics rather than meat with antibiotics, but only 57% said the have it available at their local supermarket. This study clearly demonstrates the potential market or demand for our future antibiotic free meat. If we do decide on antibiotic free meat, there is a potentially valuable profit margins and market space that could be gained from having clean meat, but even after having all the previous evidence counterclaims still exist. There is what seems to be a major counterclaim that states that most superbugs created are not food born, so feeding animals antibiotics has nothing to do with their creation, however this claim is false.
Evidence from Grace Communications, 2013 showed that livestock fed with antibiotics do have an effect on the creation of superbugs because the livestock release the antibiotics into the environment where the superbugs are created. This evidence from Grace Communications, 2013 showed that livestock fed with antibiotics do have an effect on the creation of superbugs because the livestock release the antibiotics into the environment where the superbugs are created. This clearly demonstrates another reason, why our company shouldn’t use feed infused with antibiotics. The risks of using antibiotics with our livestock should far outweigh the benefits. Antibiotics can be considered somewhat of a waste of money, are already overused, not using them can be very profitable, and lastly they have shown many dangers to human health. Overall antibiotic infused feed is a big deal right now but it hasn't been thoroughly tested yet so our company shouldn’t use it. As a last thought on this topic, the main goal in most everybody's life should be to leave the planet better than we found it and using antibiotics has shown effects against that
goal.