This TED Talk features nutrition innovator Leon Marshall, recorded live at TED at DuPont 2019.

There was a time when simple infections were deadly, but now, thanks to the wide availability of antibiotics, this is merely a relic of the past.

But actually, I have to say was,

because nowadays we're using antibiotics so much

that the bacteria that causes infections

are becoming resistant,

and that should really scare the hell out of all of us.

If you do not change our behavior

and we know cells of antibiotics,

the UN predicts that by 2050, antimicrobial resistance will become our single biggest killer.

So we must start to act.

But where to begin is an interesting question,

because we humans are not the only ones using antibiotics. Worldwide,

50 to 80 percent of all antibiotics are used by animals. Not all of these are critical for human health,

but if we do not get it under control right now, we're looking at a very scary future for humans

and elements alike. To begin, let's talk about how we ended up here.

The first large-scale use of antibiotics was in the early 50s of the last century. In the

restaurant world, prosperity was increasing and people wanted to eat more animal protein.

When animals were sick, you could now treat them with antibiotics, so they did not

die and kept growing. But soon it was discovered that added small and regular amounts of

antibiotics to feed, kept the animals healthy, made them grow faster, and caused them to need less

feed. So these antibiotics worked well, really well, actually.

...