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What we consume can either nourish us or make us ill. Recently, I discussed how food consumption influences the likelihood of colorectal cancer. However, what of food production?

Globally, we are witnessing the rise of cheap meat, largely driven by consumer desire from a growing affluent population that now can afford poultry and red meat, which were once unaffordable. Approximately 45% of global consumption growth is occurring in nations with rising economies such as India, China, Brazil, the Philippines and Indonesia. Chicken is set to take an greater portion of that growth, estimated to grow by 21% by 2034, because it is more affordable, culturally popular and requires fewer resources per kilogram compared with red meat. By 2034, it is estimated that poultry will supply 45% of the protein consumed from all meat sources.

But this has costs. With limited land and tight schedules, the solution in many countries has been to use antibiotics at scale. This isn’t just to treat illness but additionally as a prophylactic to prevent disease in crowded conditions. Furthermore, administering antimicrobials makes livestock to grow faster, although scientists aren’t sure the precise reason. This situation means that, in contrast to their use for humans—where antibiotics are typically given to treat illness—their application in agriculture is far more common and indiscriminate. Research tracking their use suggest that 73% of all antimicrobials sold worldwide are utilized in livestock production.

This massive misuse is leading to a increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. As an illustration, resistance to colistin, a final-line treatment, initially emerged in E coli bacteria that subsequently contaminated pigs. E coli was afterwards found in swine handlers. All it takes are aeroplanes and global travel networks for these microbes to spread globally. And now, colistin-resistant bacteria have been discovered not only in hospitals in the Far East but around the globe.

What does this mean for someone waiting in a doctor’s office or a hospital in England or Scotland? It signifies that infections that were previously simple to cure—such as otitis, urinary tract infections or post-operative infections—become incurable even after a dose of antibiotics. It means that surgeries such as C-sections, joint surgeries and oncology treatments that depend on immunosuppression all become riskier. Although new antibiotics are feasible to develop, the pipeline is slow and costly. We must conserve the tools we currently possess.

The solutions to this problem can only come from transforming global food production. Admittedly, the UK has achieved notable reductions in curtailing antimicrobial use in livestock. Sales of veterinary antimicrobials reared for food has dropped by 59% over the past decade. The application of this last-resort drug is now effectively zero. The employment of highest-priority antimicrobials has fallen to less than 0.5% of all veterinary antimicrobial distribution. Moreover, research by several EU bodies indicated that after antibiotic use in agriculture was cut by nearly half between 2014 and 2021, antibiotic resistance in E. coli bacteria throughout Europe also began to decline.

But just concentrating on the UK or EU is a drop in the bucket. Unless the large middle-income countries are part of the conversation on how meat is farmed, we continue to be just as vulnerable to antibiotic resistance. The difficulty is that moving towards alternative farming methods takes additional land and duration: increasing the cost of animal protein in countries with large populations can rapidly cause social unrest, political backlash and frustration. The health imperative is clear, but this must be weighed with concerns over nutritional access, financial factors and public demand.

Climate scientists have long warned about the ecological impacts of the current global food system, whether it’s greenhouse gases, biodiversity loss, or deforestation. But these consequences often feel long-term and abstract, especially for people facing financial strain or concerned with immediate healthcare access.

Antibiotic resistance is concrete. Virtually all people has taken antibiotics at some point, and we can envision what would happen if their curative power was suddenly switched off. Agriculture, medicine and climate are all interlinked. How pig meat is produced in China influences whether your child’s antibiotics are effective in Edinburgh. Whether a woman in Nigeria survives a C-section is tied to how poultry are raised in South America.

Unless we address these pervasive, world-spanning challenges, such as how our diet is sourced and how we utilize our current medications, we risk losing something precious: the ability to cure bacterial diseases that we take for granted now.