Grist - The FDA finally reveals how many antibiotics factory farms use — and it's a shitload

By Tom Philpott
December 10, 2010

"Animals in factory farms get daily doses of antibiotics, both to keep them alive in their stressful, unsanitary conditions and to make them grow faster. What's the annual volume of antibiotic use on factory farms? The question is a critical one, because the practice has given rise to a novel strain of antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), known as ST398, that's widely present in our vast hog and chicken factories...."

http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-12-10-fda-reveals-amount-of-antibiotic-use-on-factory-farms