John,

It's alarming enough that scientists are observing an increase in the number of "superbugs" -- bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics, and cost 35,000 Americans their lives every year.1

What's worse, our current use of antibiotics in agriculture is making the problem worse. Pesticides containing antibiotics important to human medicine are sprayed widely on fields.2

It's time to put a stop to this dangerous practice and protect medically important antibiotics for use in human medicine.

Tell the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the use of antibiotic pesticides in agriculture today.

In part due to the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture, antibiotic resistance is outpacing modern medicine, meaning that bacteria are developing resistance to antibiotics faster than we're developing new effective ones to replace them.3,4

The consequences of this unnecessary overuse are dangerous. It's estimated that antibiotic resistance was responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 alone.5

We should preserve antibiotics important to human health by ending the unnecessary overuse in plants and livestock. You can help make that happen.

Tell the EPA to ban antibiotic pesticides today.

We know we have the tools and track record to make antibiotic pesticides a thing of the past. U.S. PIRG and our national network have a history of successfully challenging the use of streptomycin as a citrus pesticide.6

But there's more to do. We're urging the EPA to take action to protect human health by ending the unnecessary use of antibiotic pesticides.

Make your voice heard by telling the EPA to ban antibiotic pesticides now.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. "Antimicrobial Resistance Facts and Stats," CDC, February 4, 2025.
2. Liam Sacino, "PIRG joins call for EPA to ban antibiotic pesticides," PIRG Education Fund, December 5, 2025.
3. "WHO warns of widespread resistance to common antibiotics worldwide," World Health Organization, October 13, 2025.
4. "Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment and the Food Supply: Causes and How It Spreads," CDC, November 1, 2024.
5. "Antimicrobial resistance," World Health Organization, November 21, 2023.
6. Louis Sokolow and Andre Delattre, "UPDATE: Federal court rules the medically important antibiotic streptomycin can no longer be used as a citrus pesticide," PIRG, December 14, 2023.

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