The 10-state study noted that Salmonella infections - - the most
common foodborne illness - - also declined slightly in 2009,
while a modest increase in Listeria was a concern. However, the
incidence of Listeria infection - - and, virtually every other
foodborne illness in the study except those blamed on shellfish
- - continues to be substantially lower than at the start of
surveillance in 1996. While Food, Inc. briefly discussed some of
these pathogens, it focused on E. coli and asserted that -- and
I quote - - "food has become much more dangerous in ways that
are being deliberately hidden from consumers." In the film "Food
Inc.", author Michael Pollan blames corn for the outbreaks.
Michael Pollan: "So you feed corn to cattle and E. coli, which
is a very common bug, evolves, a certain mutation occurs and a
strain called the "E. coli 0157:h7" appears on the world stage.
And it's a product of the diet we're feeding cattle on feedlots
and it's a product of feedlot life. And now this thing that
wasn't in the wo