2 Unexpected Consequences
by the reality that the meat and fat in any one hamburger could not be
tracked.
While the Jack in the Box outbreak had captured the public’s at-
tention, it was not the first widespread occurrence tied to E. coli. A
decade earlier, the New England Journal of Medicine reported a rare
serotype of E. coli identified in two outbreaks in two different states.
This time the restaurant chain was McDonald’s, and the states were
Oregon and Michigan. The rare serotype was O:H. Its implication
for future widespread outbreaks garnered little attention.
As we prepared our report, the question I mulled over was what
that future would look like. The number of beef cattle on large feed-
lots had increased by over 0 percent in one decade. The dairy industry
was likewise consolidating. The odds of finding E. coli on any livestock
operation increased with herd size and samples taken. Beef scraps were
arriving from overseas. Bins of fat and protein were crisscrossing the
country. Ground beef profitability came through volume. And consum-
ers were eating more food prepared outside the home. All these trends
were sure to continue. Then the realization set in: the system that made
products like ground beef so readily available also served double duty as
a superhighway disseminating pathogens farther and faster.
Well into my adult years, I was pretty much impregnable to microscopic
threats—or so I thought. I had a strong constitution from good genetics
and hard work on the farm. Very seldom was I ever under the weather.
For several years I had been living in Costa Rica and traveling through-
out the Americas, as well as many parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe,
without any memorable bouts of foodborne illness.
At one point, I traveled to Colorado with plans to rendezvous with
my daughter Tamara, who was now on her own, working near Denver.
We were to meet that evening at a friend’s home outside Fort Collins.
Arriving in the afternoon, I met my friends and another couple at a
restaurant in Fort Collins. When we finished dinner, Monty tossed me
the keys to their home and said they would be along later.
As I drove along country roads, I began to feel an uncomfortable pain
in my gut, accompanied by slight nausea. Instead of subsiding, the pain
intensified, as if I were being stabbed. Gritting my teeth, I willed myself