The debate around the issue of antibiotics and the side effects that they entail, particularly, in regard to the response that viruses develop toward antibiotics, evolving and becoming more difficult to manage. In his 2016 article, “How Factory Farms Play Chicken with Antibiotics,” Philpott explains that the antibiotics-based approach toward preventing bacteria from attacking poultry has mostly become outdated, making way to a new strategy based on antibiotic-free vaccination of the poultry. Therefore, factory farms should reconsider the extensive use of antibiotics and allocate resources in order to establish safer alternatives in order to meet the growing demand from consumers for healthier products.
Philpott’s article is rather important in the present-day focus on healthy eating and the continuous fight against the pandemic of the coronavirus. Though not related to some of the topical public health issues directly, it raises an important question of whether the use of antibiotics, which has been seen as central to preventing and managing a range of diseases, including especially dangerous respiratory ones, must be ceased.
The article has quite a number of elements that work, the scientific explanation of the subject matter being the key advantage. Philpott renders a rather complex health-related issue rather effectively, making it easily digestible for most readers without oversimplifying it. For instance, Philpott explains that “In a 2013 FDA study of chicken bought nationwide, 60 percent of the salmonella that was detected could resist at least one antibiotic, meaning consumers are one unclean cutting board or unwashed hand away from a nasty bug” (Philpott par. 23). Therefore, the core of the problem becomes apparent even to uninitiated readers, with the article asserting the need to transition to a new approach toward vaccination of the poultry.
However, some of the aspects of the article seemed quite weak, and some failed to function within the narrative completely. For example, the author’s attempt at describing his experience in the factory, as well as the efforts to portray the environment vividly and make the reader submerge into the atmosphere of the farm, mostly fell flat. For example, the following description seems to be thoroughly disjointed from the rest of the narrative: “I move into the massive structure and thousands of birds serenade me with a steady din of clucks; as I walk by, they part as if I’m Moses in a feathery sea” (Philpott par. 29). Since the author of the article focuses mostly on the history of the use of antibiotics in poultry production, introducing only bits of his experience at the farm in the story, the metaphorical embellishments to the story seem rather forced. Thus, instead of creating an additional layer of nuance in describing the farm, the specified additions distort the experience and serve mostly as distractions.
Nevertheless, the article has provided a unique learning opportunity, helping the audience to delve into the complex environment of the poultry industry, which, for the most part, remains obscure to general audiences. Specifically, the dilemma regarding the use of antibiotics, namely, the rapid development of resistance in bacteria and viruses toward most antibiotics, has been an important piece of information to digest. Although the problem of bacteria developing resistance to penicillin and similar antibiotics is quite a well-known issue, the scale of the problem remains mostly unknown to the general population. Thus, reading the article and exploring the intricacies of the issue represents an important learning curve and invites the reader to contemplate further solutions, including the idea of investing into scientific research to bolster the development of innovative medications that could help address the issue.
Thus, the general reactions that the article elicits are mostly mixed. On the one hand, the idea of poultry-producing industries removing themselves from the use of antibiotics appears to be an important and positive shift. On the other hand, the lack and expensive nature of substitutes for antibiotics raises quite substantial concerns regarding the safety of further poultry consumption. Philpott’s article creates a sense of undeniable urgency, making it clear that actions must be taken in order to improve the situation. However, the author seems to omit most of the challenges associated with the introduction of the new system of immunization. Therefore, further research is drastically needed to seek the means of introducing the new system into all poultry producing organizations.
Since antibiotics have proven to lead to bacteria becoming increasingly more resistant toward the application of the relevant vaccines, their use in factory farms and other environments involving handling poultry or livestock must be prohibited. Since the current approaches to minimizing the threat of further diseases in chickens and other poultry types have been proven to have a notably positive effect on the levels of resistance to diseases, it needs to be promoted further, whereas the traditional use of antibiotics, which opens the door to multiple challenges associated with the resulting virus mutation, must be abandoned. By creating a homogenous set of legal standards for the poultry producing industry, one will be able to minimize the possibility of contagion in chickens, therefore, contributing to creating healthier food.
Work Cited
Philpott, Tom. “How Factory Farms Play Chicken With Antibiotics.” Mother Jones, Web.