Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In response to publicity regarding new studies on arsenic in 2007, an FDA spokesperson stated that the
agency “has no data to suggest that there have been any adverse health effects in humans” because of rox-
arsone in chicken feed. 28 The lack of evidence seems to have more to do with a failure to look for it than a
lack of adverse effects. While the drinking water standard for arsenic has been strengthened, the standards
for arsenic residues in poultry have remained unchanged by the FDA for nearly sixty years. 29
Concerns about arsenic exposure prompted Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) to introduce the Poison-
Free Poultry Act in Congress in 2009. To date this legislation has not moved forward. The combined polit-
ical power of the drug and livestock industries is formidable.
Feed-additive production has become extremely concentrated, like all aspects of agribusiness. As of
2000, the pharmaceutical company Alpharma Animal Health (Alpharma) was the top producer of antibi-
otic feed additives and the second-largest producer of anticoccidial drugs. In 2008, King Pharmaceuticals
acquired Alpharma. Alpharma is the producer of more than half of roxarsone products, and just six com-
panies produce more than 90 percent of them.
Two years later, Pfizer, the largest drug company in the world, bought King Pharmaceuticals in a $3.6
billion deal. Pfizer, the maker of drugs like Viagra and Celebrex, is facing the loss of patent protection for
the cholesterol drug Lipitor and is seeking new revenue sources. It was most interested in gaining access to
King's pain treatment division and other drugs in its pipeline. Rumors abound that the industry giant will
sell King's animal health division.
The eventual sale of this division may be why on June 8, 2011, just thirty days after announcing the
acquisition, Pfizer stated that it would suspend the sale of roxarsone, based on new FDA data that found
arsenic in the livers of chickens fed the drug. Pfizer voluntarily suspended sales, giving the FDA cover for
not banning use of the drug. Advocates fear that it will be brought back on the market after stockpiles of it
are used or in the event that it is sold to another company. During the thirty-day lead-up to the suspension
of sales, large quantities were available to the poultry industry.
A possible sale after the voluntary suspension of 3-Nitro, roxarsone's trade name, has been mentioned
in relation to a lawsuit brought against Pfizer by one of its subcontractors. In October 2011 the Chinese
chemical company Rong-Yao, which manufactures roxarsone for Pfizer, filed a breach of contract lawsuit
against the company for $20 million in a federal district court. Dr. Rener Chen, Rong-Yao's general man-
ager, noted in a release, “The timing of Pfizer's decision to voluntarily suspend its sales of 3-Nitro, under
the veil of the FDA study and the associated FDA pressure, is suspect as it comes at the same time as
reports in the industry that Pfizer is looking to completely sell off all of its Animal Health division and
remove itself from this market altogether.” 30
Consumer advocates will be watching to see if the drug is brought back on the market if Pfizer does
indeed sell the Animal Health division to another company. Unfortunately, if this is the case, it is unlikely
that the FDA will ban its use. FDA lacks the fortitude to stand up to the excessive political power of the
economic interests benefiting from weak regulation. When the agency does act, it is to beg the food, meat,
and drug industries to cooperate through voluntary programs. The FDA is unwilling to take the actions ne-
cessary to ensure that dangerous residues like arsenic are removed from the American diet.
The FDA and its political masters are even willing to sacrifice the efficacy of antibiotics, the miracle
drugs that have saved millions of lives, for the sake of the meat industry. The agency's reckless refusal to
take decisive action banning the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics on factory farms not only is causing a
health crisis today, from antibiotic-resistant superbugs, it is risking the health of future generations.
The FDA is cowed by industry pressure, but it is also underresourced to deal with the deadly threats that
are the result of a food system out of control. With only twelve hundred inspectors to oversee all food ex-
cept meat and poultry, the agency does not have the staff to inspect it vigilantly. It does not have sufficient
funding to do laboratory tests for residues or to make sure that foods imported from the developing world
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