Industrial meat producers are using “antibiotic-free” messaging and labeling to allay consumers’ fears about the use of antibiotics in industrial meat production — but many of those producers are substituting mRNA vaccines for antibiotics, without telling consumers.
Mainline industrial confinement livestock producers routinely feeding subtherapeutic antibiotics to their animals have been desperate for an alternative for many years.
As superbugs like C. difficile, or cDiff, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA developed, consumer backlash against ubiquitous antibiotic use increased.
When consumer advocacy groups pummeled factory farmers with headlines like “Who’s Drugging Your Dinner?” the industry first denied it was a problem, then actively started looking for alternatives.