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In characterizing contemporary society, several prominent sociological theorists have referred to the notion of the ?end of nature? or the ?post-natural? condition. That is, a state of existence in which the formerly untouched natural world has increasingly become the product of human decisions to intervene in nature. The analysis developed here uses the case of the largest outbreak of a food and waterborne pathogen in Canadian history as an empirical referent to investigate how disease emergence may be understood as an unintended outcome of the post-natural condition. In so doing, this paper identifies and analyzes how naturally occurring processes existing within the environment and living organisms are altered through human practices associated with intensified livestock operations, the production of acid rain as well as by broader socio-political forces. In responding to the call of environmental sociologists to incorporate the forces of nature into sociological analysis, the analysis draws upon insights from: disease ecology, Marx?s work on the ?metabolic rift? and the sociology of time to investigate the post-natural condition and its relationship to development of virulent diseases in contemporary society. In particular, it was found that in conforming to the capitalist-inspired drive to compress time through changes in cattle diet and subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics, as well as environmental changes due to acid rain, the post-natural conditions became established for the emergence of new diseases. Furthermore, this emergence was found to remain relatively hidden because of: the decontextualized character of industrial time; the separation of rural and urban life; and the separation of food production from preparation and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]