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Probably the most compelling argument against eating eggs is that, the way they are produced today, they cause superbacteria. Around 70% of antibiotics today are used in the egg industry, directly causing antibiotics resistance in chickens, and many bacteria that attack chickens attack humans as well.

Around 0.5% of antibiotics today are used in plant agriculture, almost all of them in vineyards. The way grapes are grown today also causes superbacteria (less than egg industry, sure, but still a lot) because antibiotics stay in the ground forever, causing superbacteria forever. And it's just a matter of time before the genes for antibiotic resistance in bacteria that attack plants spread to the bacteria that attack humans via horizontal gene transfer. The problem with bacteria is that they can conjugate with their rather distant relatives. It seems to me that, if you are worried about superbacteria, you should not drink wine, for about the same reason you should not eat eggs.

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    The main objective for people who are vegan is not reducing the antibiotic usage, but preventing suffering/exploitation of animals. Therefore I don't think we can really compare grapes with eggs in the same context Commented Dec 8, 2023 at 11:15
  • I am a Lacto-Ovo-Vino Vegetarian. Commented Feb 5 at 11:21

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The difference between 70 % and 0.5 % is quite a big one.

The likelihood of transmission of multiresistance to other bacteria -distantly related or not- is dependent on the density of bacteria in the environment, available for conjugation. I would still say this density is much higher in chicken manure than in the soil of vineyards.

The worst thing possible might be vineyards soils following antibiotics application, fertilized by manure of chickens pumped full of antibiotics...

If the wine is vegan though, no manure must have been used to fertilize such a vineyard. No antibiotics should have been used in organic vegan wine ideally I suppose ?

But yes sure, avoid consuming foods which have been produced using antibiotics overall, like, produced via organic agriculture.

Moreover, certain pesticides -like glyphosate- also select for antimicrobial resistance in bacterial communities: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35266795/

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