| Factory Farms Are Making Us Sick
Help fight to keep antibiotics working for medicine, not factory farms. Dear Indiana,
Right now, someone in your community could be sick with an infection that antibiotics won't cure. If Congress could pass something that would help save antibiotics for medicine, do you think they would?
Well, they haven't for the last 7 years. And the FDA has done little to solve this problem in the last 30 years.
The truth is, Congress never does something just because it's the right thing to do. They only act once they are forced to act. That's why we've got a new winning strategy to pass federal legislation to save antibiotics. Can you chip in $5 today to help kickstart our campaign to save antibiotics?
Saving antibiotics so they work when people get sick is a winnable campaign. Right now, 80% of the antibiotics that are used in the U.S. are used on factory farms, and most of those are fed to animals to compensate for the filthy conditions they live in. The good news is that there is a solution: we can stop factory farms from misusing the same antibiotics that people need for medicine. The Food & Drug Administration has this authority, but they've refused to act, and have only put into place "voluntary" guidelines.
We're not waiting around for factory farms to do the right thing, and we know that Congress won't act without pressure, so we're about to launch an ambitious effort to pass 50 local resolutions by the end of this year. We've already passed 8 so far, and are expecting to have dozens more by the end of the summer, but in order to make that happen, we need to raise $10,000 by June 1st.
Our campaign will combine broad-based education on the issue of antibiotic resistance, while creating targeted pressure on key members of Congress by collecting petitions, generating phone calls and passing local resolutions. Can you chip in $5 today to help kickstart our field campaign to save antibiotics?
Here's how your donation will help fund this winning campaign strategy: - $5 will help collect 3 petition signatures in the field
- $10 will help generate 5 phone calls to members of Congress to raise the profile of the issue
- $50 will get a toolkit into the hands of our members to educate the public and decision makers
- $100 will go to organizer time to help pass a local city council resolution to build grassroots support
Donate to help build the political pressure that is needed to win this campaign.
This issue affects so many people personally. We surveyed many of our supporters earlier this week in order to get feedback on how to best approach our campaign. More than 6,000 of you responded, and told us that you cared most about the fact that factory farms breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can make people sick, and everyone is susceptible. And among our supporters that responded, more than 600 people have been personally impacted by an antibiotic-resistant infection.
The Centers for Disease Control have found that more than 2 million people are sickened every year from antibiotic-resistant infections, and more than 23,000 people die every year from these types of infections.
This is a matter of life and death. Big Ag has the money and the lobbyists to persuade members of Congress to drag their feet on stopping the misuse of antibiotics on factory farms, but we can build enough support at the local level to win. Will you donate to help us launch our winning strategy?
We can't do it without your support. Stand up and join the campaign to save antibiotics. Your life may depend on it.
Thanks for your support,
Wenonah Hauter
Executive Director
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org  | 
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