
Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn to Antibiotics - mikenyc
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/health/antibiotics-oranges-florida.html
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defterGoose
This sounds so very, very bad. I really wish we could massively expand the
scope and membership of the National Academy of Sciences to be able to
function as a true watchdog for all of these other agencies that seem to
increasingly be the victim of lobbying and regulatory capture. Also, it seems
vitally important that we come up with some additional hierarchy of decision-
making amongst these agencies themselves. Specifically in this case, and
probably others, the CDC and FDA, which are in charge essentially of ensuring
human health should be able to trump (oh god, no pun intended) the EPA/USDA
which are in charge of seemingly more "economics"-scale issues like clean
water and food supply. Pretty sure we can still have a stable food supply
without oranges. Pretty sure we can't have a stable healthcare system without
antibiotics. Its way easier to engineer a few new strains of citrus in a
sterile lab than it is to deal with humans' genetic inability to deal with
every infection-causing bacteria becoming resistant.

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rectang
> _But for Florida’s struggling orange and grapefruit growers, the approvals
> could not come soon enough. The desperation is palpable_

They feel their own economic desperation intensely. How much sympathy can they
muster for the desperation of those hospitalized with a racing antibiotic-
resistant infection, or their loved ones?

Many of those people will end up economically desperate, too.

~~~
ekianjo
The problem is that in many developed countries the agricultural lobby is so
strong that they have much more leverage than any other type of citizen. In
the end of the day, politicians are to blame for listening to them and
allowing them to yield so much power.

~~~
rectang
Individual politicians have to muddle along balancing many factors and operate
within a system which unfortunately requires loads of money to compete in
elections.

Some politicians are more to blame than others: those who bend the country
towards "one dollar one vote" instead of "one person one vote". Those who lend
them ideological support are as bad or worse.

This maddening win by the agricultural lobby over public health is an the
downstream result of privileging corporations over individuals.

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edoo
It is quite possible they have been pushing the limits of what can be done
with our chemical age and are now reaping the unavoidable consequences. This
makes me think of permaculture gardens that look absolutely wild unless you
understand the requirements to grow a target plant naturally include the other
plants involved that help regulate the system.

In the very first paragraph they say "..has evaded all efforts to contain
it..". I'm guessing every effort to 'contain' it involved shooting for the
same output level that may no longer be easily obtainable without resorting to
extremes. That which cannot be sustained won't be.

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User23
It's agriculture caused antifungal resistance[1] that really scares me.

[1] [https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/antifungal-
resistance.html](https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/antifungal-resistance.html)

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Camillo
I wish we could spend a little political energy on banning the use of human
antibiotics for agriculture. If the EU can do it, why can't we?

~~~
conception
Florida is a swing state

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toomuchtodo
Only matters to presidential candidates, not all Congressional reps.

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newnewpdro
Ban triclosan antibacterial soaps but expand antibiotic use in the food supply
to include the produce department, OK.

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option
anti-science lobby at its worst. Because the solution is absolutely safe
genetically modified citrus strain.

~~~
option
It amazes and angers me by how much harm is done by:

1) anti-vaxers 2) anti-nuclear 3) anti-GMO

A (much) Better public education is desperately needed

~~~
yhoneycomb
Woah there. There are legitimate reasons for being anti-nuclear and anti-GMO.
Ridiculous that you just lumped those in with anti-vaxxers.

~~~
ekianjo
Reasons for anti-nuclear and anti-GMO? You must be kidding. GMOs enable crops
to grow in areas with much less water and reduce the use of pesticides and
insecticides. Nuclear (even more so the newer form of it) is the safest form
of energy production despite the complete paranoia about it in the public. And
if you care about climate change, nuclear is certain a strong option to
consider to reduce CO2 emissions drastically.

~~~
code_duck
By far, the largest use of GMOs in the United States is to allow more use of
Roundup.

~~~
jlavine
I hate to sound like a shill for an evil company, but I've read that even
Roundup-Ready crops have an environmental advantage in allowing greater use of
low- and no-till methods on industrial farms, which sufficiently reduces
erosion of soil (with all the fertilizer that causes algae blooms and other
problems) into public waterways. I was stunned to read that a majority of US
industrial farms - not only permaculture hippies - now employ such methods.

~~~
code_duck
Where did you read this and how does greater herbicide use enable that?

I’d question, is it a net win for the environment and workers?

~~~
jlavine
I don't have a record of exactly where I read this - it was years ago - but
you can find many articles explaining the claim in a similar way by googling
"roundup" and "no till". Here are some articles summarizing the pros and cons:
\- [http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/roundup-ready-
crops/](http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/roundup-ready-crops/) \-
[https://pha.berkeley.edu/2014/03/02/monsanto-
corporationroun...](https://pha.berkeley.edu/2014/03/02/monsanto-
corporationroundup-pros-and-cons/) \-
[http://web.mit.edu/demoscience/Monsanto/impact.html](http://web.mit.edu/demoscience/Monsanto/impact.html)

The general concept is that tilling/plowing is used to mow over weeds, and
killing weeds with chemicals is an alternative.

Your question is a good one. I don't know the answer. The articles listed
above describe the environmental and health downsides.

A distinct problem - also described in these articles - that may spell doom
for Roundup-Ready crops is the emergence of resistant weeds.

There are alternatives to industrial-scale weed control outside of tilling and
herbicides. One way is to grow cover crops in the "off season", then cut them
and leave them in a thick mat that starves weeds of sun while also gradually
rotting and fertilizing the soil, then cut little holes in this mat where you
plant seeds. The USDA NRCS promotes methods like this largely through
educational programs. Farmers adopt them because they ultimately save costs on
herbicides and fertilizer.

Who knows maybe in a few decades we'll produce all food through some
industrial process resembling hydroponics, with energy from Nuclear Fusion
replacing sunlight, and weeds will be a distant memory.

