A bit of background (and all of this is in my long story for Modern Farmer, “The Abstinence Method,” which was also supported by the Food and Environment Reporting Network): The Dutch restrictions on farm antibiotics have several new standards buried within them. One is that, unlike the United States, farmers are not allowed to buy antibiotics over the counter, in a farm store or from a feed mill. Instead, they must seek the assistance of a veterinarian, who writes a prescription that is reported to the national authorities. Plus, all of the drugs approved for use on farms are subdivided into categories—essentially, green, yellow and red.

In order to treat sick animals on a farm, which is the only