Editor:

I am writing in response to the article published in The Colorado Statesman on July 31, “Ranchers Differ Widely on Antibiotics Use in Livestock.” Fundamentally, to work towards a solution to complex issues we all must be willing to focus on commonalities as opposed to differences. The core of this issue lies within the confines of health. Every person strives for health and ultimately we are dependent on it; no one wants to be sick and no one wants to see loved ones sick.The inherent problem with the misappropriation of antibiotics in livestock is that it affects more than 2 million Americans adversely a year, 23,000 resulting in death. Why, you may ask? Simply put: you are what you eat. Therefore, if you are consistently ingesting products that contain antibiotics your body will build up immunity to them. This immunity negates the overall effectiveness of antibiotics treating common diseases, leaving some people dead, tragically.

Dr. Del Miles alludes to the fact that mass overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a common-sense framework based off the reasoning that animals get sick regardless if they are confined or free. I would venture to assume that if humans lived in a factory farm setting, diseases would skyrocket based off of poor living conditions. The factory farm framework should be altered because it is not efficient, ethical or safe. It should not be promoted based off of “animals getting sick out the wild” comparison. There is no comparison.

Protecting animals and humans jointly is far from “promoting world hunger.” In fact, it is promoting world health. For this reason, it is of paramount importance that we as Coloradans ask Senator Michael Bennett to support PARA, the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act.

Kristina GouldLongmont