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A recent formal request from a dozen public health and farm worker coalitions is calling for the EPA to cease allowing the use of antimicrobial agents on produce across the United States, citing antibiotic-resistant spread and illnesses to farm laborers.

Farming Industry Applies Large Quantities of Antibiotic Crop Treatments

The agricultural sector applies about 8 million pounds of antibiotic and antifungal chemicals on American produce each year, with a number of these substances prohibited in foreign countries.

“Each year the public are at elevated threat from dangerous pathogens and infections because medical antibiotics are applied on plants,” stated Nathan Donley.

Antibiotic Resistance Presents Serious Health Threats

The excessive use of antimicrobial drugs, which are vital for treating medical conditions, as pesticides on crops threatens population health because it can result in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. In the same way, overuse of antifungal agent treatments can create mycoses that are harder to treat with currently available medicines.

• Treatment-resistant illnesses affect about millions of Americans and lead to about thousands of mortalities per year.
• Health agencies have connected “clinically significant antimicrobials” approved for agricultural spraying to antibiotic resistance, increased risk of pathogenic diseases and elevated threat of antibiotic-resistant staph.

Environmental and Public Health Consequences

Meanwhile, consuming drug traces on produce can disturb the digestive system and increase the risk of long-term illnesses. These agents also pollute water sources, and are believed to damage pollinators. Often poor and minority farm workers are most exposed.

Common Antibiotic Pesticides and Industry Practices

Growers use antimicrobials because they destroy microbes that can harm or wipe out crops. One of the most frequently used antibiotic pesticides is streptomycin, which is commonly used in medical care. Data indicate up to 125k lbs have been applied on domestic plants in a one year.

Citrus Industry Lobbying and Government Action

The formal request coincides with the regulator experiences demands to widen the utilization of medical antimicrobials. The crop infection, transmitted by the vector, is severely affecting orange groves in Florida.

“I understand their urgent need because they’re in difficult circumstances, but from a broader perspective this is definitely a no-brainer – it should not be allowed,” the advocate stated. “The bottom line is the enormous issues caused by using human medicine on produce far outweigh the crop issues.”

Other Approaches and Future Outlook

Specialists suggest basic crop management steps that should be implemented before antibiotics, such as planting crops further apart, breeding more hardy types of crops and detecting diseased trees and quickly removing them to prevent the infections from propagating.

The legal appeal allows the EPA about five years to respond. Several years ago, the regulator banned chloropyrifos in reaction to a similar formal request, but a court blocked the regulatory action.

The agency can impose a ban, or has to give a reason why it refuses to. If the regulator, or a subsequent government, fails to respond, then the organizations can file a lawsuit. The legal battle could take over ten years.

“We are engaged in the prolonged effort,” the expert remarked.