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A newly filed regulatory appeal from a dozen public health and agricultural labor coalitions is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to stop permitting the application of antibiotics on food crops across the America, highlighting superbug development and illnesses to agricultural workers.

Farming Sector Uses Large Quantities of Antimicrobial Crop Treatments

The agricultural sector uses approximately 8m lbs of antibiotic and antifungal treatments on American food crops annually, with many of these substances banned in other nations.

“Each year US citizens are at elevated threat from toxic pathogens and infections because pharmaceutical drugs are sprayed on produce,” said a public health advocate.

Superbug Threat Presents Serious Public Health Threats

The widespread application of antibiotics, which are vital for treating infections, as pesticides on fruits and vegetables endangers community well-being because it can lead to drug-resistant microbes. In the same way, overuse of antifungal treatments can create fungal infections that are harder to treat with currently available medical drugs.

• Drug-resistant illnesses affect about 2.8m people and cause about thousands of mortalities annually.
• Public health organizations have connected “therapeutically critical antimicrobials” approved for pesticide use to drug resistance, increased risk of bacterial illnesses and increased risk of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Environmental and Public Health Consequences

Furthermore, consuming chemical remnants on produce can disrupt the digestive system and raise the risk of persistent conditions. These chemicals also taint water sources, and are considered to affect pollinators. Often poor and Latino field workers are most vulnerable.

Frequently Used Agricultural Antimicrobials and Industry Practices

Growers use antibiotics because they eliminate microbes that can damage or destroy produce. One of the popular agricultural drugs is a medical drug, which is commonly used in clinical treatment. Estimates indicate approximately 125k lbs have been sprayed on American produce in a single year.

Agricultural Sector Lobbying and Government Response

The legal appeal is filed as the EPA experiences pressure to increase the use of human antibiotics. The bacterial citrus greening disease, carried by the Asian citrus psyllid, is destroying fruit farms in southeastern US.

“I recognize their desperation because they’re in difficult circumstances, but from a societal standpoint this is certainly a obvious choice – it cannot happen,” the expert commented. “The bottom line is the massive challenges created by using human medicine on food crops far outweigh the farming challenges.”

Other Approaches and Future Outlook

Experts propose basic agricultural measures that should be tried initially, such as increasing plant spacing, developing more robust varieties of plants and locating sick crops and quickly removing them to prevent the diseases from spreading.

The legal appeal provides the regulator about five years to answer. Previously, the agency prohibited chloropyrifos in answer to a comparable legal petition, but a legal authority reversed the agency's prohibition.

The agency can implement a ban, or must give a justification why it will not. If the Environmental Protection Agency, or a subsequent government, fails to respond, then the organizations can sue. The process could last many years.

“We’re playing the long game,” Donley stated.