The Tomatoland author and food-policy gadfly attacks the FDA for declining to enforce a ban on "subtheraputic" antibiotic use among livestock, a practice believed to breed dangerous strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

With the new year only a few days old, the FDA issued a press release that was dutifully disseminated by news outlets including the New York Times  (one would expect better reporting from that source) with headlines like “FDA Restricts Use of Antibiotics in Livestock.”

In the release, the FDA proudly proclaimed that it had ordered livestock producers to stop administering low doses of a single class of antibiotics known as cephalosporins, which are used to treat strep throat, bronchitis, and urinary tract infections in humans. Furthermore, the FDA’s most recent move is nothing more than the belated (and watered down) enactment of a decision to ban cephalosporins that it made in 2008 that was retracted under pressure from agribusiness interests.

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It’s like a mugger stealing your wallet containg hundreds of dollars, handing you back subway fare home, and then telling you how generous he was.

Read the full story at his blog.