Few substances have experienced a more dramatic image change than agricultural antibiotics in the 20th century. Once celebrated as miracle substances, agricultural antibiotics are now blamed for creating resistant pathogens, leaving residues in both food and the environment and glossing over animal maltreatment on farms. The history of antibiotics’ malleable image thus exemplifies the rise of a new style of Western reflexivity regarding health, food and environmental ethics and safety after the Second World War.

Pioneered by the United States in the early 1950s, the use of agricultural antibiotics was quickly adopted by European nations. However, Europeans’ carefree attitude towards widespread antibiotic use changed quite abruptly during the early 1960s: sensitized by food and pharmaceutical scandals, a pervasive fear of hidden carcinogens and the publication of Silent Spring and Animal Machines, European consumers grew increasingly sceptical of anything ‘chemical’ in their food and environment. Substances as distinct as hormones, DDT, pesticides and antibiotics were referred to as dangerous ‘chemistry’. In 1966, studies on bacterial resistance-communication via plasmid-exchange further damaged agricultural antibiotics’ already tainted image. The convergence of public and expert discourses on antibiotics’ risk now led to demands for government action.

Based on public media reports, agricultural media coverage, expert publications and internal government communication in Germany and the UK, my paper will trace the history of antibiotics in European agriculture between 1945 and 2006. I will focus particularly on West Germany and the United Kingdom – one nation firmly committed to European unification, the other repeatedly wavering about the degree of its commitment. By analysing agricultural antibiotics’ cultural transition from agricultural helper to consumer danger, my paper will highlight the historical dynamics surrounding the creation of shared European health and food ideals. In particular, I intend to analyse how protagonists developed distinct strategies to negotiate the notion of risk that suddenly surrounded the industrialized and antibiotic-dependent European food regime on national and transnational levels.