How farming can help fight the rise of the superbug

Overuse of antibiotics could trigger a global health crisis, scientists are warning, but farmers could make a big difference to stop drug resistance from growing.

Caroline Stocks
6 min readJul 8, 2024
Photo by Stijn te Strake on Unsplash

Antimicrobials are vital to protecting humans and animals from bacterial and viral infections, but their widespread use is creating an enemy that experts say could be the biggest threat to health and food safety the world has ever seen.

The rise of the ‘superbug’ — bacteria, virus and fungi that are resistant to antibiotics and other medications — could put millions of lives at risk each year as infections become untreatable, scientists warn.

The threat is already a reality for many: In 2019, some 1.2 million people died around the world as a direct result of drug-resistant infections, while resistance was linked to a further 3 million deaths.

In the UK, Professor Dame Sally Davies, England’s ex-chief medical officer, has warned that left unchecked, superbugs could make the Covid pandemic ‘look minor’.

Unless the issue is properly tackled within the next ten years, she grimly predicted, resistance will kill more people before climate change does.

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Caroline Stocks

UK journalist via Spain and the US • Writes about food, agriculture and the environment • Agtech nerd •