Once again the shift from spring to summer has carried with it a string of contamination-related food recalls. Twenty in the last month, and climbing.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Thomas Frieden lists among their greatest concerns for the coming year, “Find and stop outbreaks of drug-resistant organisms rapidly and protect antibiotics by greatly improving their rational use among both humans and feed animals." This week, we explored the state of our union, but what is the state of the pillars of modern medicine? At the risk of being blunt, drug-resistant bacteria rise faster than federal action to prevent them. As they do, we're heading ever-closer to the brink of the post-antibiotic era, in which minor...

As kids return to school this September, discussions of school lunch nutrition leave me thinking that the best option, really, to ensure children receive healthy lunches is by packing them at home. A sandwich, some fruits and veggies, a healthy treat: that’s what I got in my lunch box way back when, and that’s what I'd want my kids to eat, too. But when I think ‘healthy,’ I’m not just considering the nutrition label – I’m thinking about long-term health, as well. That’s why it’s so important to me that I buy meat raised without routine antibiotics. Why worry about the use of antibiotics on...

Science Writer Maryn McKenna gave an excellent TedTalk about the looming antibiotics crisis, how we got here and what comes next. This is what I learned.

It's an old story: Large industrial farms routinely give antibiotics to healthy animals, with Big Ag and Big Pharma encouraging the practice. This is new: what's happening now doesn't follow the stereotypical script. “Heavy-handed, bureaucratic government regulators who take joy in making businesses miserable” sit by. At best, they've suggested changes. Meanwhile, “cold-hearted capitalists who put short-term profits above all else” have stepped into the void to offer up solutions. So... who flipped the script? Consumers. Consumers are increasingly curious about their foods and its affect on...

Blue Bell creamery has suffered a series of brain freeze-level headaches this spring. For the first time ever, the Texas-based company is voluntarily recalling all of its ice cream products from the market after being linked to three food-illness-related deaths. Lysteria bacteria contaminated ice cream products from Blue Bell’s Texas and Oklahoma plants. So far, these products include Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars, Sour Pop Green Apple Bars, Cotton Candy Bars, Scoops, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars and No Sugar Added Moo Bars, according to FDA tests. The CDC...

My apartment in central Denver is charming, slightly overpriced, and within walking distance of shops, parks, and... chemical facilities. I wasn't expecting that. I'm also not unique. Over 100 million Americans live around dangerous chemical plants and refineries. We live, work, play, and go to school in "vulnerability zones": areas that could be in danger were a chemical company to suffer an accident, leak, or explosion. There have been over 350 preventable chemical accidents in just the past two years. That's really scary, but there's good news. Better chemicals and processes that could...

Last year, President Obama formed the 'National Task Force for Combating Resistant Bacteria' to put together a 5-year plan to prevent what many experts see as the public health crisis of our time: antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Its members released their plan this morning. It isn't bad, but it also doesn't address one of the major contributors to the growth and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria--or the sicknesses and deaths they cause. This a big deal. Here's what you need to know: The Plan proposed today by the National Task Force for Combating Resistant Bacteria does not ask for cuts...