But those numbers could be much higher. Just last week, the Center for Disease Control in the United States, using a new, more detailed reporting system, estimated that 8 million Americans got food poisoning last year. Using a widely-accepted statistical formula, that could mean the number of cases in Canada is in the hundreds of thousands. And for some reason or other, Canada and Scotland appear to have the highest rates of this disease in the world. It appears in the food chain at this particular time in history for some reason, because we have created the conditions under which this organism can thrive.
Many experts point to what's happening on our farms.
Today, many farm animals spend their entire lives locked in tiny pens or cages. In huge barns, tens of thousands of animals are crowded together under heavy stress, and in filthy conditions. Many eat in the same cages where they defecate. They're geared to mass production, but they can also breed disease. Gail Eisnitz, of Montana, has spent years investigating the meat production industry.