Bill Maher Pushes Obama on Food Antibiotics and GMOs

The president gets the problem, despite his FDA’s industry-friendly approach.


In a recent interview on our Bite podcast, food pundit Mark Bittman named one “way, way easy” thing the President Barack Obama could have done to make the food system safer and healthier: tightly restrict the meat industry’s use of antibiotics. But instead of doing so, Bittman said, Obama’s Food and Drug Administration instituted voluntary guidelines that leave a gaping, industry-friendly loophole—a topic I explain here.

Turns out, Obama fully gets why it’s dangerous to feed confined animals low, regular doses of the same drugs we use to fight infections in people. Bill Maher, who landed an interview with the president on his HBO show, pressed Obama talk about corporate malfeasance in food production—the conversation turns to food at about the 16:00 mark; here‘s a snippet. Obama urged listeners to “follow the science,” and then he said this:

So, when it comes to antibiotics, for example, the science is clear: We pump our animals full of it. And that’s not just a problem in terms of what we’re ingesting; it’s also a problem that more and more bacteria is becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Indeed. Here’s more on just how dire the antibiotic-resistance has become. And here’s a dive into the meat industry’s massive contribution to it.

It would have been fascinating to see Maher press Obama on the FDA’s flawed approach to addressing the problem. According to the agency’s latest numbers, use of “medically important” antibiotics on US farms rose 23 percent between 2009 and 2014. Over the same period, US meat production was roughly flat, meaning that meat production became more antibiotic-intensive over that five-year period of Obama’s watch.

The two also dipped into the recent debate on genetically modified organisms in food production. Again urging people to “follow the science,” Obama opined that GMOS are a mixed bag: “There are areas where there are legitimate concerns; there are some areas where the science seems to indicate, well, this is okay.” In an apparent reference to a recent New York Times report, Maher noted that that GMOs have proven to be no more productive than conventional crops, while also using more pesticides. Obama’s response:

If it turns out that some of these genetically modified foods aren’t healthier, aren’t more productive, then we should follow the science. If in some cases they aren’t causing any harm, we should follow the science there as well.

It was bracing to see a sitting president engage in an informed conversation about food policy. If only it happened more often.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate