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A recent formal request from a dozen health advocacy and farm worker organizations is calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to discontinue permitting the use of antimicrobial agents on edible plants across the US, citing antibiotic-resistant proliferation and illnesses to farm laborers.

Agricultural Industry Sprays Millions of Pounds of Antimicrobial Pesticides

The farming industry uses around substantial volumes of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US produce every year, with several of these substances prohibited in international markets.

“Each year Americans are at increased danger from dangerous pathogens and infections because pharmaceutical drugs are sprayed on produce,” stated a public health advocate.

Superbug Threat Poses Major Public Health Dangers

The widespread application of antimicrobial drugs, which are essential for treating human disease, as crop treatments on fruits and vegetables jeopardizes public health because it can result in drug-resistant microbes. Similarly, excessive application of antifungal agent treatments can cause fungal infections that are less treatable with currently available medical drugs.

• Drug-resistant infections affect about 2.8m people and result in about thousands of fatalities per year.
• Regulatory bodies have linked “medically important antibiotics” approved for crop application to antibiotic resistance, greater chance of bacterial illnesses and elevated threat of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Environmental and Health Impacts

Meanwhile, ingesting drug traces on food can disrupt the digestive system and increase the likelihood of long-term illnesses. These substances also pollute water sources, and are considered to affect pollinators. Often poor and Hispanic agricultural laborers are most at risk.

Common Antibiotic Pesticides and Agricultural Methods

Growers apply antimicrobials because they kill pathogens that can damage or destroy produce. One of the most frequently used agricultural drugs is a medical drug, which is commonly used in clinical treatment. Data indicate up to 125k lbs have been used on domestic plants in a single year.

Citrus Industry Influence and Government Action

The petition coincides with the Environmental Protection Agency encounters demands to widen the use of human antibiotics. The bacterial citrus greening disease, transmitted by the vector, is destroying orange groves in Florida.

“I appreciate their desperation because they’re in dire straits, but from a societal perspective this is definitely a clear decision – it must not occur,” Donley commented. “The bottom line is the enormous problems created by spraying medical drugs on edible plants greatly exceed the crop issues.”

Other Solutions and Long-term Outlook

Advocates recommend simple farming actions that should be implemented before antibiotics, such as wider crop placement, breeding more disease-resistant types of plants and detecting infected plants and rapidly extracting them to prevent the infections from propagating.

The legal appeal provides the Environmental Protection Agency about five years to respond. In the past, the agency banned a pesticide in response to a comparable legal petition, but a legal authority blocked the EPA’s ban.

The organization can enact a restriction, or must give a reason why it won’t. If the regulator, or a subsequent government, fails to respond, then the organizations can sue. The procedure could require more than a decade.

“We are engaged in the extended strategy,” the expert stated.