One Year Since E. Coli Scare: Is Our Food Safer Now?

"Farmers are now forced to comply with an array of new food safety measures, some of which are scientifically unproven and environmentally harmful.

Late in August 2006, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta began investigating cases of severe food poisoning reported by health officials in 26 states and one Canadian province. Over the next six weeks, a rare and particularly virulent strain of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 sickened more than 200 people, hospitalizing half of them, some with severe kidney damage, and killing two elderly women and a child. For epidemiologists, the outbreak presented a breakthrough because a DNA-fingerprinting system enabled CDC investigators to trace back the source of the infections from clusters of cases nationwide."

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