For half a century, meat producers have fed antibiotics to farm animals to increase their growth and stave off infections. Now scientists have discovered that those drugs are sprouting up in unexpected places: Vegetables such as corn, potatoes and lettuce absorb antibiotics when grown in soil fertilized with livestock manure, according to tests conducted at the University of Minnesota.

Today, close to 70 percent of all antibiotics and related drugs used in the United States are routinely fed to cattle, pigs and poultry, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Although this practice sustains a growing demand for meat, it also generates public health fears associated with the expanding presence of antibiotics in the food chain.

People have long been exposed to antibiotics in meat and milk. Now, the new research shows that they also may be ingesting them from vegetables, perhaps even ones grown on organic farms.

From the archive:

The reality is that, despite fears that our children are "pumped full of chemicals", everything is made of chemicals.

This return to the preantibiotic era has become a reality in many parts of the world.

... Sarah Palin, the incarnation of red-meat, know-nothing Christian nationalism ...

Even a buffalo separated from the herd has reasonable chances.

Just as surely as the SUV will yield to the hybrid, the half-pound-a-day meat era will end.