“the best of the best”: Quoted in “Here’s the Beef,” p. 9.
as much as one-third higher: Ibid., p. 9.
investigators also discovered: Ibid., p. 21.
Another leading meatpacking company: Ibid., pp. 21–22.
“serious injuries such as fractures”: Ibid., p. 8.
180 “one of the most irresponsible and reckless”: Quoted in Donald Woutat, “Meatpacker IBP Fined $3.1 Million in Safety Action; Health Problem Disabled More than 600, OSHA Says,” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1988.
“the worst example of underreporting”: Assistant Labor Secretary John A. Pendergrass, quoted in Shabecoff, “OSHA Seeks $2.59 Million Fine.”
difficult to prove “conclusively”: “Here’s the Beef,” p. 19.
fined $2.6 million by OSHA: Shabecoff, “OSHA Seeks $2.59 Million.”
fined an additional $3.1 million: Woutat, “Meatpacker IBP Fined $3.1 Million.”
fines were reduced to $975,000: See Christopher Drew, “IBP Agrees to Injury Plan,” Chicago Tribune, November 23, 1988; Marianne Lavelle, “When Fines Collapse: Critics Target OSHA’s Settlements,” National Law Journal, December 4, 1989.
about one one-hundredth of a percent: According to Robert L. Peterson, IBP’s revenues that year were about $8.8 billion. “IBP’s Presentation at the New York Society of Security Analysts,” Business Wire, October 28, 1988.
a worker named Kevin Wilson: My account of the Wilson case is based upon John Taylor, “Ex-IBP Worker Gets $15 Million in Damage Award,” Omaha World-Herald, December 3, 1994; “Opinion,” Kevin Wilson v IBP, Inc., and Diane Arndt, Supreme Court of Iowa, no. 258/95–477, February 14, 1997; “$2 Million Punitive Award Won by Injured Employee,” Managing Risk, March 1997; and “IBP’s Appeal of $2 Million Punitive Award Rejected,” Omaha World-Herald, October 7, 1997
181 The IBP nurse called them “idiots” and “jerks”: Quoted in Wilson v IBP and Arndt, Iowa Supreme Court.
182 The company later paid him an undisclosed sum: See Morris, “Easy Prey.”
“The first commandment is that only production counts”: A transcript of Murphy’s testimony appears in Andreas, Meatpackers and Beef Barons, pp. 171–83.
little has changed since IBP was caught: For Ferrell’s side of the case, I have relied upon “Plaintiff’s Statement of Specific Disputed Facts and Additional Material Facts,” Michael D. Ferrell v IBP, Inc., United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Western Division, May 7, 1999.
183 IBP disputes this version: For IBP’s version of events, I have relied upon “Statement of Undisputed Facts in Support of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment,” Michael D. Ferrell v IBP, Inc., United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Western Division, March 6, 1999.
“numerous, pervasive, and outrageous”: Quoted in “Labor Board Charges Monfort with Discrimination; Orders Reinstatement, Back Pay, and Union Election,” PR Newswire, April 12, 1990. See also James M. Biers, “Monfort Flouted Labor Laws,” Denver Post, November 4, 1995.
184 Colorado was one of the first states: See Ben Wear, “Lawmakers Seek Cure, Not Band-Aid; All Sides Cry Foul in Fight to Protect Interests,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, February 3, 1991; Karen Bowers, “The Big Hurt: Truth Is the First Casualty in the Political War over Amendment 11,” Denver Westword, October 19, 1994; and Stuart Steers, “Injured Workers Have Borne the Brunt of Workers’ Comp ‘Reform’ in Colorado,” Denver Westword, July 19, 1996.
185 Under Colorado’s new law: The figures on missing digits and other injuries are from the 1999 Workers’ Compensation Act, State of Colorado.
Congressman Cass Ballenger: See “Congressman Argues for an Overhaul of OSHA,” Business Insurance, July 10, 1995; David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf, “OSHA’s Enemies Find Themselves in High Places,” Washington Post, July 24, 1995; and Figura, “New OSHA.”
by the late 1990s had already reached an all-time low: See “Study Finds Decline in Workplace Inspections,” AP, September 5, 1998.
The plant had never been inspected by OSHA: See Maraniss and Weisskopf, “OSHA’s Enemies.”
Congressman Joel Hefley: See “Congressman Argues for an Overhaul”; “Hutchison, Hefley Introduce Proposals in House, Senate to Overhaul OSHA,” Asbestos and Lead Abatement Report, April 7, 1997; and Erin Emery, “Political Novice Alford Faces Hefley,” Denver Post, October 14, 1998.
9. What’s in the Meat
Interviews with two of the nation’s leading experts on Shiga toxin-producing E. coli — Dr. David Acheson, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Tufts University Medical School, and Dr. Patricia M. Griffin, chief of the Foodborne Diseases Epidemiology Section, Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — helped me understand some of the distinctive characteristics and potential dangers of these organisms. A pair of journal articles greatly influenced my view of the role of the fast food and meatpacking industries in spreading disease: Gregory L. Armstrong, Jill Hollingsworth, and J. Glenn Morris, Jr., “Emerging Foodborne Pathogens: Escherichia coli 0157:H7 as a Model of Entry of a New Pathogen into the Food Supply of the Developed World,” Epidemiologic Reviews 18, no. 1 (1996); and Robert V. Tauxe, “Emerging Foodborne Diseases: An Evolving Public Health Challenge,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 3, no. 4 (October/December 1997). Tauxe is the chief of the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch at the CDC. Throughout this chapter, the figures on the annual incidence of various foodborne pathogens — as well as on the number of deaths, hospitalizations, and so on — come from the most thorough nationwide study of food poisonings to date: Paul S. Mead, Laurence Slutsker, Vance Dietz, Linda F. McCaig, Joseph S. Bresee, Craig Shapiro, Patricia M. Griffin, and Robert V. Tauxe, “Food-Related Illness and Death in the United States,” Emerging Infectious Diseases 5, no. 5 (September/October 1999).
For the general reader, the two best books on foodborne pathogens are Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth about a Food Chain Gone Haywire (New York: Basic Books, 1997) and It Was Probably Something You Ate: A Practical Guide to Avoiding and Surviving Foodborne Illness (New York: Penguin, 1999). Nicols Fox is the author of both, and she was extremely generous about sharing her unsettling knowledge with me. Dr. Neal D. Bernard, at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, told me in gruesome detail what America’s livestock are being fed today. I am grateful to Lee Harding, Nancy Donley, and Mary Heersink — three people whose lives were changed in varying degrees by E. coli 0157:H7 — for speaking to me about their experiences. Donna Rosenbaum, one of the founders of Safe Tables Our Priority, provided much useful information about the meatpacking industry’s role in outbreaks. Heather Klinkhamer, the former program director at STOP, graciously let me rummage through her files and borrow literally hundreds of them.