The food we eat should nourish us, not make us sick. Yet, foodborne illness affects 9.9 million Americans each year. While public attention often focuses on food handling and kitchen hygiene, the deeper cause of these outbreaks lies in the way our food is produced. Industrial animal agriculture—characterized by overcrowded facilities, poor sanitation, and excessive antibiotic use—creates an ideal environment for the spread of dangerous bacteria. These pathogens don’t just contaminate meat, eggs, and dairy; they also make their way into produce fields through animal waste, resulting in foodborne illness outbreaks “caused” by such foods as spinach and romaine lettuce. To truly reduce foodborne illness, we must address the systemic failures of industrial farming and reimagine our food system from the ground up.
Farm Forward recommends several key actions to reduce the threat of foodborne illness to public health:
Preventing foodborne illness requires more than better handwashing or improved kitchen hygiene—it demands a fundamental transformation in how animals are raised for food. In industrial animal agriculture, animals are kept in overcrowded, unsanitary environments where pathogens like salmonella, e. coli, and campylobacter can easily spread. These conditions are not accidental; they are byproducts of a system designed to maximize output at minimal cost. As long as animals are confined in high densities with limited ventilation, poor waste management, and constant exposure to stress, outbreaks of foodborne illness will remain an ongoing public health threat.
Prevention of foodborne illnesses must start at the source: on the farm. Improvements in welfare can lead to less disease contamination and transmission, improving food safety. This will require shifting away from confinement-based models of farming and toward systems that prioritize animal health and welfare. Providing animals with more space, cleaner living conditions, and safe feed and water supplies improves animal welfare, reduces the environmental stressors that accelerate disease transmission by suppressing immune systems, and creates a healthier environment overall—one that is far less likely to become a breeding ground for dangerous pathogens. With improved living conditions and overall welfare, the need for antibiotics would decrease, reducing the risk of antibiotic-resistant foodborne bacteria. Additionally, better waste management, such as regular cleaning and proper manure storage, can help prevent the spread of bacteria into surrounding water and soil.
Systemic change in the current system involves policy reforms, from stronger animal welfare standards to improved manure management and tighter regulations on antibiotic use. But addressing these issues alone is not enough. A meaningful shift must also include reducing our reliance on industrial animal agriculture altogether.
Transitioning toward plant-based diets is a crucial part of the solution, to lower the demand for meat and dairy that drives high-density, high-risk farming practices. Without reducing the scale of animal production, efforts to prevent foodborne illness will continue to fall short. Effective prevention begins with rethinking the very foundation of how we produce food—starting not just with how animals are raised, but with how often we choose to eat them, if at all.
The most direct way to lower the risk of foodborne illness linked to industrial animal agriculture is to reduce our consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products. When demand for animal products decreases, fewer animals need to be raised in environments that breed harmful bacteria, like salmonella, e. coli, and campylobacter, lowering the use of antibiotics and reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance. Institutions have found that shifting to plant-based defaults while still offering meat, dairy, and eggs leads to dramatic reductions in consumption of animal products without decreasing diner satisfaction. Consumers can contribute to a safer food supply while supporting public health and animal welfare by shifting to a plant-based diet.
The foodborne illness contamination associated with fresh produce is often linked to industrial animal agriculture. Because contaminated manure from large-scale farms is frequently used as fertilizer on crop fields, and runoff from factory farms can enter local waterways and irrigation systems, fresh fruits and vegetables can become contaminated with antibiotic-resistant foodborne bacteria. Reducing the scale of animal agriculture and demand for animal products through adoption of plant-forward and plant-based diets diminishes this cross-contamination risk by decreasing manure production and limiting environmental pollution, making fresh produce safer for consumers.
Protecting plant-based foods from contamination also requires a combination of stricter regulations and improved farming practices. One critical step is enforcing rigorous standards for manure handling and composting, so animal waste is properly treated to kill harmful bacteria before it is applied to crop fields. This would help prevent the transfer of pathogens like salmonella, e. coli, and campylobacter from manure to fruits and vegetables. Additionally, regular testing and treatment of irrigation water are essential to stop harmful bacteria from nearby animal operations from contaminating crops. Implementing buffer zones—physical separations between farmed animals and crop fields—can further reduce the risk of airborne or waterborne bacteria spreading from animals to plants. Together, these measures form an important defense system to safeguard plant-based foods and reduce the risk of foodborne illness.
Restricting subtherapeutic antibiotic use in farmed animals is critical for combating antibiotic-resistant foodborne illnesses. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in industrial farming—by regularly administering low doses of antibiotics to animals who are not sick—creates conditions that promote the growth of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. These bacteria can contaminate meat, enter the environment, and spread to crops, ultimately infecting people and making infections harder to treat.
The FDA currently allows voluntary, industry-led practices where antibiotics are administered at low doses that do not treat illness, but promote growth and prevent disease in crowded, unsanitary conditions. This accelerates the development of resistant bacteria, increasing contamination risks and the severity of foodborne illnesses. The FDA must enact and enforce stricter, more consistent standards for antibiotic use, and also increase its veterinary oversight to ensure that antibiotics are used only when medically necessary, following strict, consistent standards.
Transparency is critical: the FDA tracks antibiotic sales but does not monitor actual usage on farms. Mandatory reporting would help identify high-risk practices and improve producer accountability. Ultimately, ending routine subtherapeutic antibiotic use and adopting safer alternatives—such as vaccines, probiotics, and improved sanitation—are essential to addressing the growing public health threat posed by antibiotic-resistant foodborne illnesses.
Foodborne illnesses are not inevitable. They are consequences of choices and practices built into our food system. By shifting dietary habits, protecting plant-based food, reining in antibiotic misuse, and fundamentally changing how animals are raised, we can dismantle a system that is making us sick and fueling the growing antibiotic resistance crisis, and build a healthier, safer food future.