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The substances we introduce into our bodies can either sustain us or make us ill. Recently, I wrote about how food consumption influences the likelihood of colorectal cancer. But what about food production?

Globally, we are witnessing the expansion of low-cost animal protein, primarily fueled by demand from a growing affluent population that finally has the means to purchase beef, pork and chicken, items that were once unaffordable. Roughly 45% of global consumption growth is occurring in upper-middle-income countries such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines. Poultry is expected to capture an greater portion of that growth, estimated to increase by 21% by 2034, since it is more affordable, widely acceptable and requires less input per kilogram than beef or pork. In the next decade, it is estimated that poultry will provide 45% of the dietary protein consumed from animal-based foods.

But this comes with costs. With scarce acreage and tight schedules, the solution in numerous nations has been to use antibiotics at scale. This is not only to treat illness but additionally as a preventative measure to prevent disease in crowded conditions. Furthermore, administering antimicrobials makes farm animals to gain weight more rapidly, although scientists do not know the precise reason. All of this means that, unlike their use for humans—where antimicrobials are almost always given to combat infection—their application in agriculture is much more widespread and uncontrolled. Research tracking their use estimate that 73% of all antimicrobials sold worldwide are utilized in animals raised for food.

This massive misuse is leading to a rise in drug-resistant bacteria. For example, colistin resistance, a “last-resort antibiotic”, first developed in E coli bacteria that subsequently contaminated pigs. The bacteria was later found in pig farmers. All it takes are aeroplanes and international transport for these microbes to circulate worldwide. And now, resistant strains have been identified not only in medical facilities in China but around the globe.

How does this impact for someone sitting in a GP clinic or a hospital in England or Scotland? It signifies that infections that were previously easily treatable—such as ear infections, urinary tract infections or surgical site infections—become untreatable even after a course of antimicrobials. It implies that operations such as C-sections, joint surgeries and oncology treatments that depend on immunosuppression all become more dangerous. And while new antibiotics are feasible to create, the development process is lengthy and expensive. We must preserve the arsenal we currently possess.

The remedies to this problem can exclusively come from changing worldwide agriculture. Admittedly, the UK has achieved notable reductions in curtailing antimicrobial use in livestock. Sales of antibiotics for animals reared for food has declined by 59% since 2014. The application of this last-resort drug is now effectively zero. The use of critically important antibiotics has fallen to under 0.5% of all veterinary antimicrobial distribution. And, research by European agencies indicated that after antimicrobial consumption in agriculture was cut by nearly half between 2014 and 2021, antibiotic resistance in E. coli bacteria across the bloc also began to decline.

But just concentrating on the UK or EU is a minor effort. Unless the major emerging economies are part of the conversation on how meat is produced, we remain just as susceptible to antibiotic resistance. The challenge is that adopting different production practices takes additional land and duration: increasing the cost of animal protein in highly populated nations can rapidly cause public protests, political backlash and frustration. The health imperative is evident, but this needs to be balanced with considerations of nutritional access, financial factors and public demand.

Environmental researchers have repeatedly cautioned about the environmental costs of the current global food system, whether it’s methane emissions, biodiversity loss, or forest clearing. But these consequences often feel distant and abstract, particularly for people struggling with financial strain or worried about immediate healthcare access.

Antimicrobial resistance is concrete. Virtually all people has used antimicrobials at some point, and we can envision what would occur if their curative power was abruptly lost. Agriculture, health and the environment are all interlinked. How pig meat is farmed in China affects whether your child’s antibiotics are effective in Edinburgh. Whether a female patient in Lagos recovers from a caesarean is linked to how poultry are raised in Brazil.

Unless we confront these pervasive, global issues, such as how our food is produced and how we use our existing drugs, we risk losing something invaluable: the capacity to cure bacterial diseases that we take for granted now.