i remember soon after odin ( née eric snowdeal iv ) was born almost 16 weeks early his doctors told us gravely that if he lived the first week the single greatest threat to survival was hospital-acquired infection and even worse antibiotic resistant acquired infection. sure enough within 2 weeks we were already dealing with bugs in his system. luckily for us, and odin, he survived. many are not as fortunate.

so whenever i see news on antibiotic resistance, it’s very personal. and i really can’t imagine what it’s like in a neonatal intensive care unit 9 years later as the situation continues to worsen.

frontline is doing a piece positing the question, “has the age of antibiotics come to an end?” prompted by the cdc sounding the alarm and warning “urgent health threat” and “potentially catastrophic consequences”. more people die in the US each year from antibiotic-resistant infections than from HIV/AIDS. every year. i don’t even want to know the exact number of premature infants that die every year.

we know non-organic agriculture plays a role in developing drug-resistant strains of bacteria and that non-organic agricultural accounts for 70% of antibiotic use ( including, shamefully, “antibiotics of last resort” ).

the national organic standard does not allow antibiotics use in the production of organic foods.

please folks, think about the choices you make and the implications they have. there is a high cost to cheap food.