How the Health Care Sector Can Help Prevent Antibiotic Overuse in Animal Agriculture: 2014 Webinar Series

Antibiotic resistance is increasing across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently stated that antibiotic resistance is “one of our most serious health threats.” Yet, antibiotics continue to be used prolifically in food animal agriculture. Thirty million pounds of antibiotics sold annually in the U.S. are used for poultry and livestock production, routinely for non-therapeutic purposes, and they are available over-the-counter with no veterinary supervision.

There is strong consensus among independent health experts that such antibiotic use in agriculture contributes to growing antibiotic resistance, and poses a serious threat to human health.

Health professionals have a powerful voice to provide in urging more prudent antibiotic use in agriculture. This three-part webinar series, presented and recorded in 2014 discusses the role that doctors, dietitians, nurses, hospital food service staff, and other public health advocates can play in protecting our antibiotics. 

Part 1: Foundations: Foundations: Emerging Science, Farm Practices, and Federal Policy

This webinar explores the foundational issues around antibiotics in animal agriculture—the latest policy and science, as well as how and why antibiotics may or may not need to be used in poultry and livestock production.

Presenters include: Lance Price, PhD, Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University; Gail Hansen, DVM, MPH, Senior Officer at the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming; and Steven Roach, MA, Food Safety Program Director of Food Animal Concerns Trust.

Part 2: Clinical Advocacy around Antibiotics: From Resolutions to Policy Engagement

This webinar presents tangible suggestions on how health professionals, particularly clinicians, can become involved in being stewards of antibiotics in food production.

Presenters include: Amy Collins, MD, with MetroWest Medical Center and Health Care Without Harm; Thomas Newman, MD, a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Pediatrics at UCSF and a National Board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Steve Heilig, MPH, the Director of Public Health for the San Francisco Medical Society.

Part 3: Purchasing: Success Stories and Strategies for Hospital Food Service

This webinar focuses on hospital meat purchasing, and how over 160 hospitals in Health Care Without Harm’s network across the nation are buying less meat and/or more sustainable meat.   

Presenters include: Dan Henroid, MS, RD, from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center’s Nutrition and Food Services; Charlotte Furman, MS, RD, in Food and Nutrition Services at the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC); and Diana K. Rice, RD, staff dietitian of The Monday Campaigns’ Meatless Monday Initiative.