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The issue of antibiotic use in farm animals has been in the news lately, as the Obama administration has sought restrictions on the non-therapeutic use of the drugs in agriculture.

Such use, which is generally intended to stimulate growth in food animals as well as compensate for some of the infectious disease risks of extreme confinement methods of raising livestock, may be to blame for the emergence of many drug-resistant strains of bacteria, many of which threaten human health.

The Washington Post wrote that a report issued by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the “‘economies of scale’ used to justify factory farming practices are largely an illusion, perpetuated by a failure to account for associated costs.” They continued:

Among those costs are human illnesses caused by drug-resistant bacteria associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes.

Several observers said the report, by experts with varying backgrounds and allegiances, is remarkable for the number of tough recommendations that survived the grueling research and review process, which participants said was politically charged and under constant pressure from powerful agricultural interests.

Among those interests? The American Veterinary Medical Association. From food safety crusader, author, and nutritionist Marion Nestle — also a member of  the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production:

There is much fuss about this issue this week because the House is holding hearings on the Preservation for Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.  If passed, this will phase out the use of seven classes of antibiotics important to human health that are currently allowed to be used as growth promoters in animal agriculture.  The FDA testified in favor of the act.  So did members of the Pew Commission: Robert Martin, Fedele Baucio, and Bill and Nicolette Niman.

So who could possibly be opposed to such a good idea?  How about the American Veterinary Medical Association, for starters, apparently more worried about its members’ self interest than about sensible use of antibiotics.

Here’s the rest.

AVMA: You’re supposed to be about animal welfare and protecting human health. Let big ag look out for itself.