For the video file, please go to: http://www.westwoodone.com/pg/jsp/osgood/transcript.jsp?pid=10118
The Osgood File. Sponsored in part by Franklin Templeton Investments. Providing a unique perspective through the specialized expertise of Franklin Templeton and Mutual Series. Franklin Templeton Investments - gain from their perspective. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
Scientists have new concerns about something that's supposed to be good for you: eating your veggies. A study found crops can pick up antibiotics in soil.
SOT / GUPTA: "The antibiotics are getting in the food chain - in the plant uptake."
More after this for Emerson.
Commercial farms use antibiotics to keep livestock healthy. Susan Prolman of the Union of Concerned Scientists says farmers use 25 million pounds of such drugs every year.
SOT / PROLMAN: "Most of the antibiotics used in this country are used not to treat sick people or sick animals, but for non-therapeutic purposes at factory farms."
University of Minnesota scientist Kuldip Kumar did a test using manure with antibiotics in it to grow corn, onions and cabbage.
SOT / KUMAR: "We thought probably those antibiotics won't be picked up by the plants. And tetracycline was, so that was a surprise to us."
The reason it was a surprise is that antibiotics stick strongly to soil. Tetracycline molecules are bigger than those of the food that plant roots draw out of the ground.
SOT / GUPTA: "To a certain extent, we don't know what the mechanism is by which these plants are taking the large molecules."
Professor Satish Gupta studies antibiotic wastes at the University.
SOT / GUPTA: "People like me and you may not have any impact. For the little babies, are we feeding them any food that might have some of these residues?"
Scientists say only lab tests can show how much antibiotic material is in manure. They also say the plants absorb only tiny amounts. Even so, these experiments are of concern.
SOT: "The antibiotics are getting in the food chain - in the plant uptake. We don't know what magnitude of impact would be, but we need to figure it out."
The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. September 6th, 2006.The Osgood File
