It turns out that agribusiness had every reason to be concerned about tonight’s CBS Evening News segment on veterinary antibiotics. The segment just aired, and it packs plenty of punch. It features lots of high quality footage revealing absurdly crowded conditions at factory farms. And the segment paints a clear picture of an industry that will take great risks with the public health in order to boost profits.
Maybe the segment’s best moment is the interview with National Pork Board veterinarian Liz Wagstrom. She’s magnificently awful on camera, wearing this fake ass frozen smile throughout the interview and claiming that, “the vast majority of [pig] producers use [antibiotics] appropriately.”
Sadly, Katie Couric missed her chance to call Wagstrom out on her bullshit. I’d have liked Couric to follow up by asking Wagstrom a pointed question such as: to what extent is the pork industry responsible for the 70,000 antibiotic-resistant infection fatalities that occurred last year in the United States?
Still, tonight’s segment inflicted a major blow onto factory farming. The second and final segment of this investigation airs tomorrow. Be sure to pass tonight’s video to all your omnivorous friends. Link.
