Antibiotic-Free Chicken Served in 6 American School Districts

More often than not, I find myself writing about things in the world that need to change… but today I want to touch upon a success story in America! I truly think there has been a remarkable step in the right direction and I hope it inspires more people to do the same.

New food standards in 6 of the largest American school board districts have been established and they require all chicken served in lunchrooms to be antibiotic-free chicken.

These 6 school board districts feed over 2.5 million kids everyday; the impact these new regulations will have is astounding and it’s the first step in making America an antibiotic-free country!

With these new regulations in effect, half a billion dollars will go towards the antibiotic-free market each year, instead of the multi-national powerhouse corporations that use GMOs, pesticides and antibiotics. This won’t have a drastic impact on the corporations, however it will have a remarkable impact on the success, popularity and availability of the antibiotic-free providers (or it will cause corporations to change their ways to accommodate these standards).

The chicken that come from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are fed antibiotics as well as animal feed that is genetically modified.

Not only are the chickens required for this new standard going to live an antibiotic-free life, it is also required that the chickens be treated humanely as judged by the National Chicken Council’s Animal Welfare Guidelines.

Why is this change a big deal?

This rise of food standards will forever change the way people think about meat with antibiotics. In the past the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has warned the population about the effects exposure to antibiotics has on our health.

This is the primary force behind the movement to a higher standard of meats in American schools. If children are ingesting antibiotics with every school meal they consume, they will become resistant to antibiotics and new antibiotic resistant “superbugs” will be created.

The danger in having antibiotic resistant bugs is that when we contract such a disease, they are more difficult if not impossible to treat. Once simple to treat, these diseases and bacteria will transform into strong, drug resistant diseases.

Medical practitioners have been abusing antibiotics, handing them out to anyone who is sick, and not using them as a last resort. Now our bodies have an extremely high antibiotic tolerance and we have become resistant to some drugs all together. This abuse, along with the amount of food that contains antibiotics steers us down a frightening road filled with antibiotic resistant superbugs.

This is one of the reasons I always promote alternative forms of medicine and treatment and encourage people to avoid antibiotics if they can afford to.

I hope that in the near future, all school boards will adopt this standard of food… Antibiotic-free chicken is great but what about the rest of the food that’s available in your children’s lunchroom? What’s next…Maybe organic produce and grains in schools? I look forward to seeing each and every step in this healthy, holistic direction.