This is an abject failure of government to protect its citizens. This is the the kind of radically dangerous scientifically blind decision making that can lead to vast, far more significant unintended consequences.
Even the general public is aware now of the existential threats of human pathogenic "superbug" infections. And aware that the cause is overuse of antibiotics.
So how is it possible that the EPA is allowing the MASSIVE dumping of antibiotics into the environment where it can generate as yet unknown "superbugs" from the soil or water or who knows what? The microbiome of some insects? Certainly not the EPA.
When the new flesh eating bacterial apocalypse arrives in 5 years, remind yourself of this action by the EPA. Remember who was in charge and go yell at them as your face melts.
OR, a new administration could stop this suicide, help the afflicted farmers in the mean time, invest in Massive orders of magnitude more public research in sustainable environmentally based pest control, Free to farmers, and recover the trees (and other crops) as the knowledge comes in about how to manage pests of all kinds without making worse problems. This would be the real Green Revolution that could last indefinitely.
This is a nightmare among all the nightmares happening before our eyes.
57
Should we consumers have weakened immunity so the Pettegrews et al. can have a family business?
Should the entire U.S. public no longer be able to use common and still effective antibiotics when needed to kill common infections -- or should a few farmers get a way of life and an income?
Is it fair to take away protection of antibiotics from 100s of millions of people, so some few dozens of farmers can bring a product to market?
Will people accept a choice of 'nuclear winter' -- a point at which no antibiotics work, resulting in deadly Staph. aureus infection, when children die of simple infections --
so they can buy a few oranges or orange juice?
A warning on what this leads to, 'Missing Microbes' author Martin Blazer MD :
https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/beware-the-antibiotic-winter/
45
The states involved, Florida and California, are capable of passing their own restrictions if there is the political will. As with anything else, if enough people make enough noise, especially in the streets rather than online, the political will will magically appear.
10
This EPA decision is an absolute failure to consider benefit vs. risk. The benefit is unknown and there is an alternative – to replant with fresh stock. Re risks: Streptomycin is one of the last lines of defense against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. So there's the obvious risk of increasing antimicrobial resistance. But there are potentially others. Streptomycin is not benign. Systemic exposure in humans can cause kidney damage and deafness. About 1 in 500 people have a mitochondrial DNA mutation called m.1555A>G that predisposes them to permanent deafness after exposure to a single dose of streptomycin. Other risks that EPA apparently failed to consider are effects on pollinating bees. In addition to harming the bees, there are other concerns. A study found significantly more streptomycin resistance genes in the gut of honey bees in the US where agricultural use of streptomycin is high compared to Norway where use is low, and showed how these genes may be transferred to new geographic areas as hives are moved to pollinate crops. The statement from Taw Richardson from ArgoSource is disingenuous at best. The company’s promotional materials say that after decades of use that “in many orchards fire blight bacteria have developed varying levels of resistance” as a consequence of using antibiotics in orchards. The orchard industry has overused antibiotics so much already that they are paying the price we are in human medicine – antibiotic failure from bacterial resistance.
38
@JEA Exactly. Most people might expect the EPA to PROTECT them from an unsafe environment.
9
For anyone who is interested, Consumer Reports Comments
On EPA's Registration Review Proposed Interim Decisions for Several Pesticides: Streptomycin Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPP-20089-0687 does a good job of outlining all the things EPA could have done in this case to minimize potential environmental and human harm from this action and points out many deficiencies in the review. It's here: https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CR-comments-to-EPA-on-streptomycin-PID-final-5.17.19.pdf
12
Well, that's it, then. Organic oranges only for me from here on out. I've made it to 60 years old and have scrupulously avoided taking unnecessary antibiotics - the periodontist was the worst; gave me 2 weeks of a powerful dosage as a hedge against potential infection after each of 2 gum grafts, and I took neither. Just used the prescription antiseptic rinse and sailed through without any problems whatsoever. I'm determined to meet old age and its inevitable problems without antibiotic resistance, so these miracle drugs will actually work when I need them. The EPA should be ashamed of itself with this decision.
24
@Sarah
Actually, bad news, it's not your body that builds the resistance, it's the bacteria themselves.
28
I will not buy Florida oranges or juice again.
16
@Technic Ally
Or California since the author notes they're now permitted to use the streptomycin and oxytetracycline beyond the 764,000 acres already approved for it.
15
Boycott Florida citrus. The life you save may be your own!
14
@Zen Dad As pointed out, it is the bacteria that are becoming immune to antibiotics.
What's coming -- for ALL of us, whether we like it or not, if we stay on this path-- is antibiotic winter.
Missing Microbes by Martin Blazer M.D. delineates this terrible potential future:
https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/beware-the-antibiotic-winter/
4
The EPA no longer does what is best for the US or the world. These types of decisions have huge impacts on our health and our future. How is the normal person supposed to combat this stupidity?
24
@Vicki Vote in Democrats and lobby them to do the right thing re human health and welfare. That should work.
8
I worked in research for a major pharmaceutical company for 30 years. Research had a natural products division that isolated and identified hundreds of different antibiotics from a variety of sources from all over the world. Many of the antibiotics were not appropriate for human use for a variety of reasons. However, there is no reason that many of these antibiotics that were previously set aside could not be used in agriculture without the concern that their use would contribute to the development of resistance to antibiotics that are critical to human medicine.
10
We're the only species that has the capacity to foresee the long-term consequences of our actions, yet it also seems to be a species trait that we can only act in our own perceived short-term interests. Can our society evolve beyond a need to hoard resources and wealth for short-term gain at the expense of other's future?
30
I feel for the struggling farmers; it would seem that the farm bill should be accounting for issues like this to a greater degree, and incentivize long-term changes to less harmful agricultural practices while allowing farmers to stay afloat.
20
Bad decision on so many levels to spray these antibiotics in multi tonne levels on orchards.
The lawyers love it-- find one person injured by increased antibiotic resistance from the spraying and the manufacturers and growers all become "tobacco" liable. You knew it and did it anyway.
The spraying won't work after a short time, because the target organism becomes resistant-- the growers are not applying a sufficient consistent titre under all weather conditions (it is nearly impossible to do so).
Beneficial bacteria which may be needed by these orchards are being damaged, with unknown effect. Perhaps this is why some farmers found the efficacy less than expected.
Finally, have these growers done anything other than bleat about the problem and beg for the typical "one shot" cheap fix? Have the growers invested in bacteriophage research targeting this particular bacteria? Supporting increased surveillance to keep out invasive organisms? (won't help the growers now, but perhaps if someone had done a better job in the past the growers would not be in this bind).
10
At this point, all we can hope is that this misuse is too expensive and ineffective to expland. Then we vote out the current Administration.
Mr. Petteway, I'm sorry about your plight, but other people in countless professions have faced the wholesale destruction of their source of income. Being a fourth-generation "insert profession here" does not mean your descendants should benefit from endangering the general public to let them continue what you do.
Please consider that the CDC is more interested in human health than crop health and they are alarmed by this permit. Please consider that the FDA has also responded to valid concerns and the result was a decrease, not an increase, in antibiotic use.
And consider what happens if your children or grandchildren face infections in the future that had been treatable, but no longer are responsive to antibiotics.
36
This sounds like insanity. Plants depend on a bewildering variety of bacteria. They have mind-numbingly complex relationships with tens of thousands of species of bacteria in order to thrive. Spraying them with antibiotics not only interrupts bacteria which are troublesome, it destroys tens of thousands of species of bacteria the plants depend on. It's like carpet bombing New York City to get rid of thieves.
50
These officials apparently are only “alarmed” although nothing concrete to ban it, in order to safeguard the general population.
1
I think the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) needs to be renamed to EDA. Environmental Destruction Agency.
17
This winter my cancer surviving husband (no immune system) and I were begging a health care provider for antibiotics to treat a secondary lung infection that was likely pneumonia — my husband had been ill about two months by that time. The doctor was very reluctant to prescribe an antibiotic. We knew from hard experience the viral infection was over and this was bacterial, and possibly deadly.
We begged.
Demanding patients are _blamed_ for causing superbugs, and then they spray antibiotics on trees exposing them to every person who comes into contact with those trees and, possibly their fruit?
There are no words.
27
Humanity evolved to deal with the day's dangers: no food, no water, attacks by predators with, possibly, cognizance of seasonal variations. Only in the past 10,000-20,000 years (give or take) did natural selection slowly advantage those who developed agriculture, people who thought about the next year, as the 3,000 year old Biblical story about Joseph's interpretation of Pharoah's dream demonstrates i.e. storing food for bad crop-yield years.
As much as we would like to think otherwise, humans are not suddenly going to forego short-term family interest as an evolutionary mechanism to advantage an individual's genes in favor of an abstraction called "humanity." Unless we deal with the reality of what we are, we will be in no position to successfully move toward the "long-term greater good."
Yes, we can change in fundamental ways, but not in time periods measured by election cycles.
4
I think the basic thesis in my comment above is borne out by the indirect focus of the Most Recommended comments: what should and can we do now? Yes, if we don't take appropriate actions now, the future may well be pretty dim. However, if we do not keep in mind the nature of the clay we are working with, we cannot create a better pot.
3
@Steve Fankuchen I get it. I do. But we'd better change and quickly. The threats of our own making we face today are exponentially worse than anything our species has seen in its relatively short history.
3
I wonder why Insect growth regulators are not being used ?
4
Big Agriculture always wins. Their wins are mostly under the radar of public awareness but they win nonetheless.
It's big business with big campaign contributions that give them so much power. That, along with the sway they have in the Senate, due to the high number of agriculture states, makes them a force that can't be beat.
The losers are often small farmers, biodiversity and public health.
11
And it doesn’t eradicate the fungii. Unbelievable.
8
Perhaps this is the 21st century's version of Zero Population Growth and the answer to anthropogenic global warming.
If you neutralize the effectiveness of antibiotics, you increase the likelihood of the exponential spread of fatal infectious diseases, potentially killing off enough people, so that the greatest driver of global warming, a rapidly increased world population coupled with the democratization of material expectations, is eliminated.
It would seem there is the real possibility that antibiotic residues on and in the fruit could trigger an allergic, even anaphylactic, reaction in people allergic to these antibiotics, which includes not just consumers but also the workers in the citrus groves and people living downwind from the groves.
13
They’re poisoning their crops and exposing us to risk. Someone needs to explain to them it won’t work long term. Tough but reality. What are they going to do? No idea, but I won’t be buying citrus products any time soon.
11
First we’ve been told that most national brands of orange juice contains traces of glyphosate and now we’ll have to worry about whether it contains antibiotics. Absent testing and labels that show my juice to be herbicide and antibiotic free, I might be done with OJ for the foreseeable future.
I am sorry that the citrus growers are stuck with this problem, but the EPA decision lacks any scientific basis for approval, and there is real evidence to suggest that it will extremely dangerous or deadly to humans. People’s heslth needs to come first b
16
There's an old saying "robbing Peter to pay Paul." In this case it should be "making sure Peter gets paid regardless of what happens to Paul."
By the time we find out what the real impact of antibiotic use on citrus fruit is it may be too late for many of us.
We're already getting significant traces of antibiotics in chicken, fish and meat products. Adding citrus to this mix may be the tipping point.
Of course most of us will not become aware that we've reached that point until we take medication for a very treatable disease only to discover that we are antibiotic resistant.
But don't expect the Trump administration to do anything about it. Citrus growers in Florida are a well heeled block and Trump will not do anything to upset his chances of winning the state in 2020.
The rest of us once again become the guinea pigs or sacrificial lambs of big business.
15
Please keep the spotlight on this issue, NYT. There is no doubt: spraying antibiotics leads to resistant microbes in the soil, some of which can cause lethal infections in humans. Lawmakers and the public are alarmingly uninformed, and the role of good, fact based journalism on this topic can't be overstated. As a scientist, I know the gravitas of this situation but don't always know how to communicate it. Thank you for doing so.
208
The answer is clear. It would be extremely foolish to buy and consume any citrus fruit, unless you yourself grow it and don't treat it with antibiotics. Why invite environmental degradation and possible risk to the health of yourself and others?
44
I will boycott all orange products from Florida and not participate in this deplorable abuse of antibiotics.
Over 162,000 Americans die a year due to multi-drug resistant infections. This will only increase dramatically by wanton use of antibiotics. We ignore the scientific advice of the FDA and CDA to our detriment.
68
It would seem there is the real possibility that antibiotic residues on and in the fruit could trigger an allergic, even anaphylactic, reaction in people allergic to these antibiotics, which includes not just consumers but also the workers in the citrus groves and people living downwind from the groves.
30
"In its evaluation for the expanded use of streptomycin, the E.P.A., which largely relied on data from pesticide makers... "
Say no more.
106
Anyone remember the ending of H. G. Wells _War of the Worlds_?
I paraphrase: It was the smallest thing that got them....
The microscopic creatures did in the invaders.
Well, it will be those same small things that do us in, in huge numbers, if this kind of insanity prevails.
47
Perhaps this is the 21st century's version of Zero Population Growth and the answer to anthropogenic global warming. If you neutralize the effectiveness of antibiotics, you increase the likelihood of the exponential spread of fatal infectious diseases, potentially killing off enough people, so that the greatest driver of global warming, a rapidly increased world population coupled with the democratization of material expectations, is eliminated.
I note the article indicates that both President Obama and President Trump signed off on this, though the latter to a greater degree. Let that be informative for Americans who complacently still think that electing someone like President Obama is the solution to all our problems.
I also note that the pathogen here is likely the result of humanity's rapidly increased movement around the world, as well as the true globalization of commerce. Keep that in mind the next time you fly abroad or buy something made on another continent. Invasive species, whether microbial or higher, are not impressed by regulations, let alone border walls.
16
@Steve Fankuchen Yes, my thoughts as well. There is a larger picture indeed.
1
Orange juice is essentially sugar water. I have not consumed it in years. I would miss a grapefruit now and again however.
17
@h king
Yes - OJ results in a rapid increase in blood sugar. I stopped consuming it.
3
Whether it's oranges, grapefruit, beef or pork, you playing with fire when you rely on antibiotics at an industrial scale. Buyer beware.
GMO food may be an alternative but a better alternative is to promote local food grown in a responsible matter. Industrial farming is like raising sick children who survive on modern medicine. And while antibiotics have been a boon to our society the birds are coming home to roost when it gets over relied upon.
33
In today's modern science, if only there was a process to safely move a gene into these plants to make them resistant to this pest and therefore forego the antibiotic usage.
10
Industry *always* says there isn't enough research. They've been trotting that one out for a century at least. The US is so far gone down the unaccountable corporate rabbit hole that there's no rescuing it. While other countries take a long term view of long term threats, the US puts money ahead of the public good. I don't want any of these growers to out of business, but the world can do without citrus. It can't do without antibiotics if saving lives is a priority. The conservative thing to do is not allow this stuff until there really is enough research to show its effects. If that takes a long time, so be it.
17
@Stevenz you said, "but the world can do without citrus"...what about the next crop? And the one after that? How many types of crops can we do without?
7
@Brent the fruit isn't any less nutritious or inedible, it's just not as sweet. And we CAN do without this crop, but the next time you get a bacterial infection try not taking an anti-biotic and see how long your infection lasts or how long you last.
4
This is a REALLY STUPID idea that unfortunately got its start in the last year of the Obama administration.
4
@Bill -- The people and culture at the EPA have changed dramatically under the current president, making far more captive of industry. It's on their watch that this happened, no one else's.
19
I am surprised that a germophobic President with a retreat less than 150 miles from Zolfo Springs would be approving this policy.
7
#bcg vaccinate for TB NOW so less drug resistant cases later! Got vaccine safe given to billions of people why not use it
2
@BL
BCG has been around since 1921. It's effectiveness is very variable, Certainly no magic bullet that allows irresponsibility with anti-TB antibiotics.
4
This approval is not a recipe for disaster; it is a disaster. The routine use of antibiotics as feed supplements for weight gain in animals has shown this practice to make some antibiotics absolutely useless as antibiotics for humans. The use of antibiotics in horticultural crops will create an even larger disaster because there will be a larger treatment area with even less containment than with animal treatments. A better strategy would be to simply pay off citrus growers to grow citrus species that are resistant to the invasive pathogens until breeders can produce disease-resistant varieties of current consumer-preferred citrus crops.
70
@Jim Tokuhisa One could argue that the disaster is human beings on this planet.
7
Why is the American economy so good under Trump? Because he slashed all regulations meant to protect us from the FDA to the FTA to the EPA. He put people in charge of these departments whose greed shows in their personal expenditures. It’s no wonder businesses’ profit win over consumers’ well-being every time. The Art of Winning by Any Means Necessary. This is his re-election strategy, alongside his omnipresent culture wars. If he loses, he will blame the rigged system and try to foment Civil War to avoid facing corruption and other charges as a civilian. This President’s and his administration’s selfishness know no bounds.
76
Guess we either buy organic juice only or go without. Fear the citrus farmers in their desire to save the farm may end up killing the customers.
59
While nobody can fault orange growers for wanting to pursue such a path given this infestation threatens their livelihood, it is clear that based on what the scientific community knows about antibiotics today such a reckless approach means that our government (along with the average consumer) must step up as the adults in the room. Consumers must vote with their wallets.
I’ll happily avoid oranges and orange related products from Florida until I can be convinced that growers are not endangering society so they can make money for a limited period of time before antibiotics lose their effect.
One can find interesting parallels to this story throughout human history.
Orange growers need to find other solutions where I won’t have to pay the pricey tab they help ring up.
27
@Norah
Out here I have done what many others do now. I can get fruit at the Farmers Market, or I only buy organic fruit at the various grocery stores. Of course the same for vegetables. The EPA essentially has been destroyed by this administration.
32
"The use of antibiotics on citrus adds a wrinkle to an intensifying debate about whether the heavy use of antimicrobials in agriculture endangers human health by neutering the drugs’ germ-slaying abilities. "
Ok, Attention; Journalists. THERE IS NO DEBATE. Not in the scientific world. This is a re-run of 'is tobacco harmful" and "is global warming real" - the "debate" is kept simmering entirely by interested parties who KNOW BETTER - keeping their profits high. The drug manufacturers and end users - cigarette makers and tobacco farmers - yell loudly that their livelihood is being taken from them; at the same time their practices are literally KILLING people.
Right now. 23,000 deaths each year just in the USA; according to the CDC.
There is NO DEBATE. Only the highly organized and subsidized whines of the self-interested.
178
Do not mess these bacteria. They have more genetic powers than Donald's genes.
11
The story of PR firms hired by Florida growers to convince Americans that orange juice was healthy and an essential part of breakfast is infamous in the annals of manipulation. Only now are people waking up to the fact that fruit juices are just sugar water and consumption of them is tightly correlated with obesity, especially in children. The industry was also central to the vitamin C scam. Americans were allegedly vitamin C depleted and susceptible to colds, flu, cancer, etc. unless they gobbled oranges and swilled orange juice. Completely untrue, of course. As dieticians like to put it, vitamin C supplementation is good for only one thing: producing expensive urine. So, environmentally unsound practices, profligate use of fresh water (especially detrimental in California), heavy use of pesticides, and now application of critically important human drugs to foods. High time for the ethical, health conscious and informed consumer to avoid oranges and especially orange juice. The NYT story also neatly illustrates current US regulatory policy: it has nothing to do with protecting the public, but instead plays handmaiden to industry -- Boeing's planes dive-bombing the earth, milk and cheese laden with drugs and hormones, drugs and supplements industries making unwarranted claims (and all too frequently selling things that aren't at all what they purport to be), drug infused oranges, Ford, GM and Chrysler fraudulently reporting vehicle emissions and fuel efficiency. . .
33
"the heavy use of antimicrobial drugs in agriculture could spur germs to mutate so they become resistant to the drugs, "
Not "could". WILL . There simply is NO question about it, scientifically.
These kinds of decisions are now made by political appointees with zero science- and backed up by lower level techs with bachelor's degrees in - something.
Do you have a relative who recently died from drug resistant bacteria? Sue these morons; NOW.
114
My gallon of Florida OJ is 4 dollars less in Pennsylvania. That I subsidize the price for likely the rest of the nation irks me enough to only purchase 58 oz, not 64 anymore, when it is on sale. Now mixing in bacteriacides, I'm out.
12
The largest source of antibiotics in the food supply is animal products. That is where the main concern should be. The most direct cause of antibiotic resistance remains inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics for viral respiratory tract infections by pediatricians, family practitioners and nurse practitioners.
5
@JCX On the contrary, if the antibiotics are in the food, then everyone's getting them. True that antibiotics are being prescribed far too much for patients, but ingestation via the food chain is ultimately going to cause the greatest damage.
10
@Jack Lee The type of antibiotics are quite different between food supply and medical treatment.
@JCX
Streptomycin? Really?
11
“They used to have pneumonia, but now it’s like they have a cold,”
And there you have it, the PERFECT recipe for the evolution of resistance to the antibiotics.
Even though sprayed- the bacteria are surviving the application, well enough to still make the tree sick. Guess what? Some of the bacteria will get over the antibiotic - just a little faster. Then reproduce, recombine- and; bingo.
43
@Greenpa
That comment reminded of an apple grower who told us that his trees were so sensitive to disease that if one of us sneezed in his orchard his trees would probably get sick.
Industrial farming has strained the natural order of plants and trees and made them reliant on drugs in order to produce at an industrial scale. Drug companies foot the bill for these agricultural chatelaines and common sense and understanding of the processes of the natural world get short shrift.
10
@Ed C You should understand that farming is worse than gambling when it comes to making a livelihood. So many odds stacked against farmers. Every company in the food supply chain is behind profits, even at the expense of local farmers. They bring produce wherever they can acquire at better prices to attract customers.
So the real question is should local farmers giveup and not take up industrial scale farming ? Food is a basic human right. You should vote with your spending by choosing organic produce.
Drug companies and companies that trade food for profit have been in nexus since the dawn of time. Nothing new there.
Public health in the US has taken a back seat to big money, lobbies and downright ignorance - gun violence, a measles epidemic, opioid and other drug deaths, tainted public water supplies, widespread use of pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics don't have positive, long-term, consequences for public health. The US ranks about #30 in life expectancy compared to other countries and the number is in decline. Some states rank below underdeveloped countries.
I'm not sure what to do other than be careful what I eat (all organic but who knows if that's even true) and vote for candidates who care (there aren't many of them).
45
I think the saddest thing about government policy is the either or argument we seem to always have. in this case, it's either farmers or everyone's health. Obviously, the prospect of our miracle drugs continuing to work takes precedence over the citrus industry but that doesn't mean we don't put a plan in place to help these farmers transition to other crops. Stop the use of antibiotics on these farms and work with these farmers to find crops they can grow, provide some financial assistance to help them transition, and let them continue to provide for their families.
The EPA needs reform--they seem to only care for the companies who make their money off making our world unhealthier. I say this as someone who has been battling a bacterial infection in my gastrointestinal system for over 2 years now. I've simply run out of antibiotic options to kick the bug. Its become resistant to everything that use to work against it. Thankfully, the bug only lowers my standard of living and won't end my life, but that doesn't mean other infections won't end many others.
35
What impact will this have upon people who have serious allergies to antibiotics? If growers take this step, they should be compelled to label their products.
25
That Roy Petteway is a criminal.
It is time to stop buying oranges. From now on, my family will abstain of oranges and grapefruits.
83
The agriculture industry is becoming more and more a threat to the health and safety of people around the world. Animal agriculture is responsible for massive greenhouse gas emissions, destruction of forests, as well as the spread of drug-resistant diseases. The EPA is becoming a tool of industry, ready to whitewash whatever environmentally destructive plans are presented to them. It’s become much worse under Trump.
We can help by buying organic and eating a plant-based diet as much as possible. Don’t patronize the polluters!
31
@Grover The reason you have food to eat is because of modern industrial agriculture. In 1920 the USA had no tractors; farm animals plowed the fields and their dung was the fertilizer. Farm workers weeded and harvested the fields. There were no pesticides. Some people want farmers to go back to this system. Unfortunately this agricultural system could only produce 40% or less food than the system we have today. In 1990 farmers in the USA were feeding Americans on 1.9 acres per capita. This includes marginally productive land like range land. Today they are feeding us with 1.3 acres. This is because of increasing population and conversion of farm land into housing. If something like the gang-of-eight "comprehensive immigration reform" were to happen the US population would be about 900 million, up from today's already too-high 330 million, late in the 21st century and farmers would be trying to support us on 0.3 acres each. Nobody thinks this is possible. In trying to plan a sustainable future for our country Americans need to stop treating the issue of overpopulation as a taboo in American discourse.
14
@Billy Bob Gascan
The reason farmers are feeding us on fewer acres per capita is because farming has become more productive. It has nothing to do with population growth.
In fact, a great deal of farmland has reverted to forest, especially in the East, because more efficient farming elsewhere has made it uneconomic. If there ever were a need, it could be farmed again.
4
Question: under regulations for organic produce, could a citrus fruit treated with an antibiotic (as described in the article) still be sold as an organic fruit? I don’t know if regulations on the use of term “organic” permit the practice described in this article.
4
Spray with heavily concentrated ppm colloidal silver ...
1
@Bob
Do you know how much that stuff costs compared with streptomycin?
2
Reads like a recipe for disaster. Protect corporate and business interests, short-term thinking, and ignoring science.
77
@Ma
Exactly! A cornerstone of the new America in all regards. It is hard to believe there is no insect , like ladybugs) that would counter/eradicate the Asian citrus psyllid. Of course that would significantly impinge on the profits of big Ag pharma: what a pity that would be.
Organic growing with micro-nutrients and beneficial insects seems worthy of a controlled trial, rather than widespread spraying. No one want antibioitc flavoring or worse, the insidious side effects, in their orange juice.
16
almost everything we eat these days are poisoning us...
i eat a orange every day...and will stop doing so unless i can find some labeled "free of antibiotics.."
like vineyard after some years have to pull up the plants and burn them.then plant new ones...maybe the citrus groves should do the same,and kill the disease ,find another way to eradicate the bug that infect the trees..stop spraying..and contaminating our water..
i know its not simple...but there are other ways ,more natural and friendly to our environment that can be used
now i wonder what methods they use in Spain ...& elsewhere in Europe,South America...
thank you NYTimes for this article....and others
41
Since the disease is spread by the psyllid (only?) why not create a "gene drive" to exterminate the psyllid as is being done against mosquitoes? The psyllid is invasive, doesn't belong on this continent, so nothing in the FL/CA environment will suffer if they disappear.
14
@Observer This is not at all a bad idea, but do you realize how expensive and time-consuming this type of research and implementation might be? Among things to consider is that the genetics of mosquitos have been studied for some time, in addition to their various ecological relationships with their environments and other organisms. The psyllid in question most certainly does not have the decades of research necessary, yet, for anything like what you suggest.
3
Know the expression "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger"? That's what drug resistance means. The weak bacteria get killed, the stronger, resistant ones survive and now you can't kill them when they invade you.
The EPA's statement that "the drug quickly dissipated in the environment" amounts to nothing. The problem is the drug resistant bacteria riding on that orange, not the residual drug.
23
There was an article about this several years ago in Scientific American. The SA article was about how scientists have created genetically modified citrus trees which have a gene from spinach that gives them resistance to this disease. These resistant trees are mentioned briefly in the article. In the long term this is the only solution to this problem. Ironically the European Union would never allow products from these trees into the EU due to irrational fear of GMOs.
16
@Billy Bob Gascan There's nothing irrational about fearing RoundUp, which is where the rubber meets the road in GMOs.
10
“ Those trees are our livelihood and our future.” Selfish. What about the health and life of those of us who may unknowingly eat their contaminated fruit? Then contract a bacterial infection, as my sister did 2 months ago, after surgery for breast cancer. It took 4 weeks of iv antibiotic infusion to finally defeat it (we hope). We will need, but not get, warning labels on such fruit.
80
Not the same thing. Hospital acquired (nosocomial) infections are caused by having so many sick people in one building. Antibiotic resistant bacteria thrive in that environment.
5
Scary. Especially this part "Researchers believe the surge in a drug-resistant lung infection called aspergillosis is associated with agricultural fungicides, and many suspect the drugs are behind the rise of Candida auris, a deadly fungal infection." Having had a double lung transplant partly due to a stubborn Aspergillosis infection and a friend die recently from one, this decision seems to put the needs of the few before the needs of the many. Tragedy.
124