Antibiotics, AMR & Agriculture

Antibiotics have played a major role in the intensification of agricultural production. Mass-introduced after 1945, antibiotics helped transform both animal and plant production. However, the resulting growth of antibiotic infrastructures came at a price. Critics blamed antibiotics for leaving dangerous residues in food, enabling bad animal welfare, and selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, which could no longer be treated with antibiotics. 

Supported by the Wellcome Trust and conducted at the University of Oxford between 2012 and 2015, my doctoral research explored the history of antibiotic use, resistance, and regulation on both sides of the Atlantic. The dissertation was awarded Oxford's 2015 Dev Prize and resulting research articles were published in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Endeavour, and Palgrave Communications. In addition to several policy commentaries, an academic monograph based on the dissertation (Pyrrhic Progress: The History of Antibiotics in Anglo-American Food Production), was published open access by Rutgers University Press in 2020. Pyrrhic Progress is the first comprehensive reconstruction of the complicated negotiations that accompanied this process of risk prioritization between consumers, farmers, and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The book's analysis of the complexities of historic antibiotic stewardship efforts provides important insights for current debates on the global burden of AMR.

Awards:

Winner of the 2021 Joan Thirsk Memorial Prize from the British Agricultural History Society​

2020 Choice​ Outstanding Academic Title​

Winner of the 2020 Turriano Prize from ICOHTEC

Short-listed and highly commended for the Antibiotic Guardian Award from Public Health England​

Long-listed for the Michel Déon Prize from the Royal Irish Academy​