Pyrrhic Progress analyses over half a century of antibiotic use, regulation, and resistance in US and British food production. Mass-introduced after 1945, antibiotics helped revolutionize post-war agriculture. Food producers used antibiotics to prevent and treat disease, protect plants, preserve food, and promote animals’ growth. Many soon became dependent on routine antibiotic use to sustain and increase production. The resulting growth of antibiotic infrastructures came at a price. Critics blamed antibiotics for leaving dangerous residues in food, enabling bad animal welfare, and selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, which could no longer be treated with antibiotics. Pyrrhic Progress reconstructs the complicated negotiations that accompanied this process of risk prioritization between consumers, farmers, and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Unsurprisingly, solutions differed: while Europeans implemented precautionary antibiotic restrictions to curb AMR, consumer concerns and cost-benefit assessments made US regulators focus on curbing drug residues in food. The result was a growing divergence of antibiotic stewardship and a rise of AMR. Kirchhelle’s comprehensive analysis of evolving non-human antibiotic use and the historical complexities of antibiotic stewardship provides important insights for current debates on the global burden of AMR.

Contents

• [Dedication]
• List of Abbreviations
• 1. The Sound of Coughing Pigs
  • The Antibiotic Dilemma
  • Farmyard Realities
• Part I. USA: From Industrialized Agriculture to Manufactured Hazards, 1949–1967
  • 2. Picking One’s Poisons: Antibiotics and the Public
    • Euphoria
    • Residues and Allergies
    • Resistance
  • 3. Chemical Cornucopia: Antibiotics on the Farm
    • The Origins of Agricultural Antibiotic Use
    • Antibiotic Infrastructure
    • The Costs of Plenty
  • 4. Toxic Priorities: Antibiotics and the FDA
    • Opening the Gates
    • Normalizing Risk
    • Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
    • Antibiotic Reform
• Part II. Britain: From Rationing to Gluttony, 1945–1969
  • 5. Fusing Concerns: Antibiotics and the British Public
    • Great British Antibiotics
    • A Plethora of Concerns
    • A Fusion of Concerns
  • 6. Bigger, Better, Faster: Antibiotics and British Farming
    • The Urge to E-X-P-A-N-D
    • From Wariness to Routine
    • Early Concerns
    • Battles for Control
    • Infective Resistance
  • 7. Typing Resistance: Antibiotic Regulation in Britain
    • Licensing Agricultural Antibiotics
    • Flying Blind
    • Typing Resistance
    • Corporatist Compromises
    • The Swann Report
• Part III. USA: The Problem of Plenty, 1967–2013
  • 8. Marketplace Environmentalism: Antibiotics, Public Concerns, and Consumer Solutions
    • Epistemic Divides
    • The Toxicity Crisis
    • The Organic Moment
    • AMR Complacency
    • Resisted Regulation
    • Purity Pays
    • Market Solutions?
  • 9. Light-Green Reform: Antibiotic Change on American Farms
    • Planting from Fencerow to Fencerow
    • Defending Antibiotics
    • A Crisis of Intensification
    • A Light-Green Rollback
    • Voluntarist Victories
  • 10. Statutory Defeat: Voluntarism and the Limits of FDA Power
    • Institutional Change
    • Proof of Harm
    • Attempt Number One: Seeking External Endorsement (1970–1974)
    • Attempt Number Two: Stage-Managing Endorsement (1975–1977)
    • Attempt Number Three: Unilateral Restriction (1977–1985)
    • Regulation in a Time of Deregulation
    • The Era of Voluntarism
• Part IV. Britain: From Gluttony to Fear, 1970–2018
  • 11. Between Swann Patriotism and BSE: Antibiotics in the Public Sphere
    • Fragmented Pressure
    • Reemergent Crises
    • BSE and Moral Panics
    • Reform
    • Higher-Dosed Problems
  • 12. Persistent Infrastructures: Antibiotic Reform and British Farming
    • Business as Usual
    • Thatcherism, Farming, and Limited Reforms
    • A Decade of Crises
    • BSE and AGPs
    • Antibiotics Reformed?
  • 13. Swann Song: British Antibiotic Policy After 1969
    • Implementation
    • Dilution
    • Residues and Meat Hygiene
    • Reform
    • After AGPs
  • Conclusion: Antibiotics Unleashed
    • Four Stories
    • 1. A Story of Short-Termism
    • 2. A Story of Epistemic Fragmentation
    • 3. A Story of Infrastructure
    • 4. A Story of Narrow Reform
    • Toward Long-Term Resilience
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• About the Author

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kirchhelle, Claas, 1987-author.

Title: Pyrrhic progress: the history of antibiotics in Anglo-American food production / Claas Kirchhelle.

Description: New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, [2020] | Series: Critical issues in health and medicine | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019009912 | ISBN 9780813591476 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813591483 (cloth: alk. paper)

Subjects: | MESH: Anti-Bacterial Agents—history | Drug Resistance, Microbial | Food Safety | Legislation, Drug—history | Agriculture—history | History, 20th Century | History, 21st Century | United Kingdom | United States

Classification: LCC RM267 | NLM QV 11 FA1 | DDC 615.7/922—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019009912

A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org

Manufactured in the United States of America