Should we be Anti Antibiotic?

Today while at work I read a lot of information about the FDA encouraging drug companies to relabel feed used animal antibiotics so they can not be used as a growth enhancer for animals.  To be honest, I really don't think that is the best use of our antibiotics anyway, even though my farm does feed one antibiotic this way.  We are looking to discontinue use regardless of the advice of the FDA because it doesn't seem to do much for us.  Honestly, each animal we sell eats less than a few pounds of the stuff over their lifetime, and I wonder how much that really adds up to for people, but I really don't know.

The second part of this issue is banning the antibiotics fed to animals as disease prevention if they are similar to ones used in humans.  Would this really lead to the use of less antibiotics while raising happier and healthier animals?  The treatments that vets and farmers come up with for common problems are meant to keep the animals healthy and stress free until they reach market age.  They are not intended to put an unnecessary amount of drug residue into the food supply.

Places that butcher animals also have withdrawal tests for all antibiotics that animals are treated with before they are brought in.  For example, if an animal is given a shot of penicillin, it may not be able to go to market for 20 days, allowing the drug to exit the system.  After so many days withdrawal, the drug can not be traced in the animals.  If a drug trace is found, the farmer doesn't receive his full pay, or the meat is rejected completely.  Neither one of these options pays for the farmer.

What if this mandate goes into full effect?  I believe there are other options we could use that we may want to look into anyway.  What about probiotics in feed?  What about other more natural supplements that we could use?  If there is a better way out there for us to make our product, we need to find it and take advantage of it.  Fighting changes just because they take us out of our comfort zone isn't a good way to go.  We need to be open to innovation, even if it makes us come at an issue from a different angle.  People can do great things when given a challenge. 

If science and the consumer dictate that a change in the way we produce our food is necessary, we can't call for this change to occur in one day, one week, or maybe even in one year.  A transition period is needed for producers to regroup, and new methods to be field researched on how to handle the problems at hand.  

It is the responsibility of all people involved in agriculture to produce the best food that they can.  Each farmer I know believes in full faith that they are sending the best product to the consumer.  They are proud of the time and effort put in two raise the animals and crops.  Each farmer eats the crop he produces and the animal he grows.  We are all in this together.