Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors annual meeting Oct. 24

Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors annual meeting will be held at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in Fairfield.

Admission to the event is free. The group suggests a $5 donation is welcome to support JFAN's mission.

The theme of this year's meeting will be 'Factory Farms Are Creating Superbugs.”

The following is information about the event courtesy of JFAN.

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Antibiotics, the miracle drugs that save countless lives, are in serious trouble. Their overuse and misuse in factory farming is significantly contributing to the emergence of 'superbugs,” antibiotic- resistant bacteria strains that are becoming increasingly difficult to treat.

Dr. Lance Price, a leading microbiologist from George Washington University working on the forefront of this threat, will tackle this issue during the 2019 JFAN annual meeting, Factory Farms Are Creating Superbugs: How We Can Protect Lifesaving Antibiotics - And Ourselves on Thursday, October 24 at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center, 200 N. Main Street, Fairfield, Iowa beginning at 7:15 p.m.

A new international study published this month in Science found antimicrobial resistance in livestock grew at an alarming rate over the last 18 years, as much as 60% in some cases. Price will speak on the impact of bacterial resistance to human health, how bacteria mutates to become antibiotic-resistant, how CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) contribute to the problem, and what must be done to protect these lifesaving drugs.

Seventy percent of US antibiotics are used in agriculture, according to the FDA, primarily administered to livestock at low dose levels in factory farms to prevent spreading infections in dirty, bacteria-infested conditions. While this may benefit the CAFO industry's economic bottom line, it's also contributing to a developing public health crisis that puts the global community at risk.

Price is well known for his groundbreaking work confirming the connection between the superbug livestock-associated MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and industrial pork production, a link that scientists suspected for several decades. His foundational 2012 study tracked data from CAFOs in 19 countries on four continents, uncovering smoking gun evidence that a strain of superbugs was emerging out of factory farms.

He again made headlines in 2018 when he led a team of researchers in an exhaustive study that identified a strain of E. coli on supermarket poultry meat linked to urinary tract infections (UTIs) in people. Complicating matters, UTIs are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

Price calls antibiotic resistance one of mankind's greatest public health threats and with good reason. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conservatively estimated in their 2013 report that antibiotic resistant infections kill 23,000 people each year. A 2016 United Kingdom report predicted 10 million people may succumb to antibiotic resistant infections by 2050 if antibiotics aren't adequately protected.

Dr. Lance Price is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Public Health and a founding director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at GWU. In addition to his pioneering analysis of genomes in humans, food, livestock, and livestock environments, he advocates for science-based policies with policy makers and nongovernment organizations. During the Obama Administration, he testified before the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy urging them to reduce antibiotics in agriculture and medicine.

Price also is on the faculty of Translational Genomics Research Institute and directs both their Center for Food Microbiology and Environmental Health and Center of Microbiomics and Human Health. He received his doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins University where he was a Center for a Livable Future Doctoral Fellow.

Joining Price will be Lois Dovico, owner of Dovico Gardens and Greenhouse in Batavia, Iowa who will share her story about contracting a life-threatening Staph and MRSA infection after exposure to well water contaminated with CAFO manure. Dr. John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri at Columbia will introduce and emcee this year's annual meeting.

The JFAN annual meeting is co-sponsored by community partners: Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, Sustainable Living Coalition, and Little Village Magazine.