AVMA SAYS Pew Commission report is flawed, unscientific

Response addresses commission’s recommendations, advertisements

An AVMA report says recommendations by a prominent critic of industrial animal agriculture are unscientific and can actually threaten human health.

The document, available at www.avma.org/PEWresponse, questions the validity of the content and review process for a report published in 2008 by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (www.ncifap.org) on the sustainability of the nation’s food animal production systems. The AVMA contends the report is not consistent with the well-documented, science-based reports that the Association has come to expect from the Pew Commission.

The AVMA response is being widely distributed, and members of Congress are among those who will receive copies.

The AVMA document, “The American Veterinary Medical Association Response to the Report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production,” was a product of members of eight volunteer leadership councils and committees and three staff divisions. The Pew Commission report, “Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America,” was a two-year project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. David R. Smith, a professor and the extension dairy and beef veterinarian for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said it is important for the AVMA to provide veterinarians’ perspective on the Pew Commission’s conclusions. He said authors of the Pew report have been trying to raise awareness about their recommendations, particularly among members of Congress involved in antimicrobial use legislation.

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