The Trouble with Antibiotics

Each year, an estimated 2 million people in the U.S. are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria-and at least 23,000 die. As the crisis deepens, FRONTLINE correspondent David E. Hoffman turns his attention to the American farm, a sector that comprises an estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics sold. Hoffman travels the country to investigate new research out of Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas focusing on how antibiotics on the farm might be contributing to the growth of resistant bacteria that threaten the health of people. FRONTLINE traces the history and controversy over antibiotics in agriculture, discovers gaps in basic data about how antibiotics are used on the farm-and raises questions about why that information does not exist.