Citrus Farmers Facing Deadly Bacteria Turn to Antibiotics

This sounds so very, very bad. I really wish we could massively expand the scope and membership of the National Academy of Sciences to be able to function as a true watchdog for all of these other agencies that seem to increasingly be the victim of lobbying and regulatory capture. Also, it seems vitally important that we come up with some additional hierarchy of decision-making amongst these agencies themselves. Specifically in this case, and probably others, the CDC and FDA, which are in charge essentially of ensuring human health should be able to trump (oh god, no pun intended) the EPA/USDA which are in charge of seemingly more "economics"-scale issues like clean water and food supply. Pretty sure we can still have a stable food supply without oranges. Pretty sure we can't have a stable healthcare system without antibiotics. Its way easier to engineer a few new strains of citrus in a sterile lab than it is to deal with humans' genetic inability to deal with every infection-causing bacteria becoming resistant.

&gt; <i>But for Florida’s struggling orange and grapefruit growers, the approvals could not come soon enough. The desperation is palpable</i><p>They feel their own economic desperation intensely. How much sympathy can they muster for the desperation of those hospitalized with a racing antibiotic-resistant infection, or their loved ones?<p>Many of those people will end up economically desperate, too.

It is quite possible they have been pushing the limits of what can be done with our chemical age and are now reaping the unavoidable consequences. This makes me think of permaculture gardens that look absolutely wild unless you understand the requirements to grow a target plant naturally include the other plants involved that help regulate the system.<p>In the very first paragraph they say &quot;..has evaded all efforts to contain it..&quot;. I&#x27;m guessing every effort to &#x27;contain&#x27; it involved shooting for the same output level that may no longer be easily obtainable without resorting to extremes. That which cannot be sustained won&#x27;t be.

It&#x27;s agriculture caused antifungal resistance[1] that really scares me.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cdc.gov&#x2F;fungal&#x2F;antifungal-resistance.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cdc.gov&#x2F;fungal&#x2F;antifungal-resistance.html</a>

I wish we could spend a little political energy on banning the use of human antibiotics for agriculture. If the EU can do it, why can&#x27;t we?

Ban triclosan antibacterial soaps but expand antibiotic use in the food supply to include the produce department, OK.

anti-science lobby at its worst. Because the solution is absolutely safe genetically modified citrus strain.