Wealth, Status, Meat, and Superbugs

Send us Fan MailMeat is never cheap – not in terms of the cost of raising animals for meat, or in terms of the impact on the environment. And now science has clearly shown that the way people use antibiotics in their flocks and herds can feed the rise of antimicrobial resistance. But antibiotics are so very useful, and in many countries, they are just “part of the furniture,” says Clare Chandler, PhD, a medical anthropologist who leads the Anthropology of Antimicrobial Resistance research group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It’s impossible to figure out how to help people stop overusing antibiotics without first understanding all the reasons they are doing it, Chandler says. In this episode of One World, One Health, Chandler describes how some people who were never traditionally farmers are raising meat small scale as a business venture. This economic drive to raise livestock is entangled with the idea that eating meat demonstrates wealth and status. Listen as Chandler tells host Maggie Fox how experts can't simply tell people to stop feeding antibiotics to their livestock.