There are antibiotics in your vegetables

While the University of Minnesota researchers have already stated that livestock have a lot of harmful antibiotics in them, they are now saying that this is also true of vegetables as well. This study can be found in the Journal of Environmental Quality. It shows that food crops can readily accumulate antibiotics from the soil that has been spread with cattle manure.

These findings were based on a greenhouse study that was done. It involved 3 different food crops. These included corn, lettuce and potatoes. They found that those plants that were grown in soil that was modified with liquid hog manure, which contains the common veterinary antibiotic sulfamethazine, actually absorbed this antibiotic. It could be found in the plants' leaves. There were also concentrations in the plants' tissue. This concentration actually increased as the amount of antibiotic present in the manure increased. It was also diffused into potato tubers. As such, it is believed that other root crops, which include such things as carrots and radishes, are also particularly vulnerable to antibiotic contamination.

This should cause you to become concerned as it really did concern the University of Minnesota researchers. One of the researchers, Satish Gupta, said that contaminated plants actually have the potential of causing allergic reactions in those people who are sensitive to various antibiotics. Satish Gupta also said that this type of contamination is likely to foster antimicrobial resistance. This is not good, in fact it is dangerous, because it can render antibiotics ineffective in humans.

Another researcher, Holly Dolliver, wanted to make sure to warn people that those plants that are contaminated by antibiotics should be of particular concern to the organic farming industry. This is because manure is often the main source of crop nutrients.

Of course, the USDA stipulates that organic producers must manage animal materials in a manner that does not contribute to the contamination of crops. This means that residues of prohibited substances are banned and prohibited. Unfortunately, as of yet manures that contain antibiotics have not been formally banned or prohibited by the USDA. Instead they are saying that there needs to be a lot of further research done. This is needed in order to investigate how different plants absorb different antibiotic compounds.

-----------------------
Copyright Brenda Marie Hoffman
Be kind to the environm ent
Get $100 in FREE Shaklee products
http://www.shaklee.net/brendahoffman/whatsnew