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The substances we ingest can either nourish us or cause sickness. Recently, I discussed how food consumption impacts the likelihood of colon cancer. However, what of food production?

Worldwide, we are observing the expansion of low-cost animal protein, largely fueled by consumer desire from a expanding middle class that finally can afford poultry and red meat, items that were previously out of reach. Roughly 45% of global consumption growth is taking place in upper-middle-income countries such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines. Poultry is set to take an increasingly large share of that growth, projected to increase by 21% by 2034, because it is more affordable, widely acceptable and requires fewer resources per kilogram compared with beef or pork. By 2034, it is projected that chicken will supply 45% of the protein eaten from all meat sources.

However this comes with consequences. With scarce acreage and tight schedules, the solution in many countries has been to use antibiotics at scale. This is not only to address disease but additionally as a preventative measure to avoid sickness in overpopulated environments. Furthermore, giving antibiotics makes farm animals to gain weight more rapidly, although researchers aren’t sure the precise reason. This situation means that, unlike their application in people—where antimicrobials are almost always given to treat illness—their application in agriculture is much more widespread and indiscriminate. Research monitoring their consumption suggest that 73% of all antimicrobials distributed globally are utilized in animals raised for food.

This enormous overuse is leading to a increase in drug-resistant bacteria. For example, colistin resistance, a “last-resort antibiotic”, initially emerged in E coli bacteria that subsequently contaminated swine. The bacteria was later found in swine handlers. All it takes are air travel and global travel networks for these pathogens to spread globally. Currently, colistin-resistant bacteria have been identified not only in hospitals in China but around the globe.

What does this mean for an individual sitting in a doctor’s office or a medical center in the UK? It signifies that infections that were once simple to cure—such as ear infections, urinary tract infections or post-operative infections—become untreatable even after a course of antimicrobials. It implies that surgeries such as C-sections, joint surgeries and oncology treatments that depend on immune suppression all become riskier. Although new antibiotics are feasible to develop, the development process is slow and expensive. We have to conserve the arsenal we have.

The remedies to this problem can only come from changing worldwide agriculture. Admittedly, the UK has achieved notable reductions in reducing antimicrobial use in livestock. Sales of antibiotics for animals reared for food has declined by 59% over the past decade. The application of this last-resort drug is now effectively zero. The use of critically important antibiotics has fallen to less than 0.5% of all animal antibiotic sales. Moreover, studies by European agencies suggested that after antibiotic use in agriculture was cut by nearly half between 2014 and 2021, antimicrobial resistance in E. coli bacteria throughout Europe also started dropping.

However just focusing on the United Kingdom or Europe is a minor effort. Unless the major emerging economies are part of the conversation on how meat is produced, we continue to be just as susceptible to antibiotic resistance. The challenge is that adopting alternative farming methods takes additional land and time: making meat even more expensive in highly populated nations can rapidly cause public protests, political backlash and discontent. The medical necessity is evident, but this needs to be balanced with concerns over food security, economics and public demand.

Climate scientists have long warned about the environmental costs of the present worldwide agricultural model, whether it’s greenhouse gases, biodiversity loss, or deforestation. But these effects often seem long-term and theoretical, especially for people facing financial strain or concerned with short-term medical services.

Antibiotic resistance is concrete. Almost everyone has taken antibiotics at one time or another, and we can envision what would happen if their infection-clearing effect was abruptly lost. Agriculture, medicine and climate are all interlinked. How pig meat is farmed in Asia influences whether your offspring’s medication are effective in Edinburgh. Whether a woman in Nigeria recovers from a caesarean is tied to how poultry are farmed in South America.

Unless we confront these widespread, world-spanning challenges, such as how our food is produced and how we utilize our existing drugs, we endanger something precious: the capacity to cure bacterial diseases that we take for granted today.