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What we consume can alternatively nourish us or make us ill. Recently, I explored how dietary habits impacts the risk of colon cancer. However, what of food production?

Globally, we are observing the expansion of cheap meat, primarily driven by demand from a growing affluent population that finally can afford poultry and red meat, items that were once out of reach. Roughly 45% of increased worldwide demand is occurring in nations with rising economies such as India, China, Brazil, the Philippines and Indonesia. Poultry is set to take an greater portion of that growth, estimated to increase by 21% by 2034, because it is relatively cheap, culturally popular and needs fewer resources per kilogram compared with red meat. By 2034, it is estimated that chicken will provide 45% of the protein consumed from all meat sources.

But this comes with consequences. With scarce acreage and intense time pressure, the approach in many countries has been to use antibiotics at scale. This isn’t just to address disease but also as a preventative measure to avoid sickness in crowded conditions. And, administering antimicrobials causes livestock to grow faster, even though scientists do not know exactly why. All of this means that, in contrast to their use for humans—where antibiotics are typically prescribed to treat illness—their application in agriculture is much more widespread and indiscriminate. Research tracking their use estimate that 73% of all antimicrobials sold worldwide are used in animals raised for food.

This massive misuse is leading to a increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. For example, resistance to colistin, a “last-resort antibiotic”, first developed in E coli bacteria that subsequently infected swine. The bacteria was afterwards found in swine handlers. Only required are aeroplanes and global travel networks for these pathogens to spread globally. Currently, resistant strains have been identified not only in hospitals in China but around the globe.

How does this impact for an individual waiting in a doctor’s office or a hospital in the UK? It signifies that infections that were previously simple to cure—such as ear infections, UTIs or post-operative infections—become incurable even after a dose of antibiotics. It implies that surgeries such as C-sections, hip replacements and cancer therapies that rely on immune suppression all become riskier. And while new antibiotics are technically possible to develop, the development process is lengthy and expensive. We have to conserve the tools we have.

The solutions to this problem can only come from transforming worldwide agriculture. To be fair, the UK has achieved notable reductions in curtailing antibiotics in farming. Sales of antibiotics for animals reared for food has declined by 59% since 2014. The use of this last-resort drug is now virtually nonexistent. The use of critically important antibiotics has dropped to under 0.5% of all veterinary antimicrobial distribution. And, research by several EU bodies suggested that after antimicrobial consumption in farming was reduced by almost 50% between 2014 and 2021, antimicrobial resistance in E coli across the bloc also started dropping.

But just concentrating on the United Kingdom or Europe is a minor effort. If the major emerging economies are included in discussions on how animal protein is farmed, we remain just as susceptible to antibiotic resistance. The challenge is that moving towards different production practices takes more space and duration: making meat even more expensive in highly populated nations can quickly trigger social unrest, political backlash and frustration. The health imperative is clear, but this must be weighed with concerns over nutritional access, economics and consumer expectations.

Environmental researchers have repeatedly cautioned about the ecological impacts of the current global food system, whether it’s methane emissions, species decline, or forest clearing. But these consequences often seem distant and abstract, particularly for people facing financial strain or worried about immediate healthcare access.

Antibiotic resistance is tangible. Almost everyone has used antimicrobials at one time or another, and we can imagine what would occur if their infection-clearing effect was abruptly lost. Agriculture, medicine and climate are all connected. How pork is produced in China influences whether your child’s antibiotics work in Edinburgh. Whether a female patient in Lagos survives a C-section is tied to how chickens are raised in Brazil.

Unless we address these pervasive, world-spanning challenges, such as how our food is produced and how we use our current medications, we risk losing something precious: the ability to cure bacterial diseases that we assume will always work now.