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Sunday, November 18, 2018
Rising salmonella threat
looms over Thanksgiving
RICHARD WOZNIAK I Tribune News Service
An outbreak of a virulent drug-resistant Salmonella in the U.S turkey supply began a year ago and has sickened about 160 people. But
it has moved slowly and been diffuse, reaching across 35 states, making it difficult for food-safety officials to track its origin and path.
Regulators, food processors grapple with outbreak as holidays near
BY KRISTEN LEIGH PAINTER
Star Tribune
Food-safety investigators
are working to pinpoint the
source of drug-resistant sal
monella found in raw turkey
meat as a nationwide outbreak
expands just before the largest
turkey consumption day of the
year.
The U.S. Centers for Dis
ease Control and Prevention
has released its first update
since July on the outbreak
that began last November. It
said the number of reported
illnesses has nearly doubled to
164. There’s been one reported
death, in California, as a result
of handling or consuming
tainted turkey.
Authorities say consumers
can still eat turkey this Thanks
giving, but the CDC and the
U.S. Department of Agricul
ture’s Food Safety and Inspec
tion Service are stressing the
importance of proper handling
and cooking techniques.
The cases have been surfac
ing at a steady rate and over a
wide area. Illnesses have been
linked to a variety of turkey
brands, companies, process
ing facilities and retailers in 35
states.
It has been traced to raw
turkey pet food and other raw
turkey products. Some turkey
plant workers have became
ill through contact with live
birds.
The CDC and FSIS know of
at least 22 slaughter facilities
and seven processing plants
where tainted product passed,
but the agencies have not
released details. FSIS did not
say why it wasn’t releasing that
information other than the
investigation
is ongoing and
the original
source is not
yet known.
Minnesota
is the nation’s
top turkey pro
ducing state,
raising around
45 million
birds a year.
Two of the
nation’s three
largest turkey-
producing
companies,
Hormel’s Jen-
nie-0 Turkey
Store and Car
gill, are based in Minnesota.
Both companies declined to
comment, referring all media
questions to the National Tur
key Federation, which is rep
resenting the industry on this
outbreak.
“For consumers, the bot
tom line is that all turkey is
safe when properly cooked
and handled, and that turkey
producers and processors are
continually working to make
them even safer,” the federa
tion said in a statement.
Ryan Osterholm, a Minneap
olis attorney who is represent
ing a five-year-old Minnesota
girl and several other people
who have been severely sick
ened by the outbreak, said this
is among the worst strains of
salmonella he’s seen. It’s resis
tant to multi
ple antibiotics
used to treat
infections in
humans and it
doesn’t have a
single source,
making it a
systemic prob
lem, possibly
originating in
a large-scale
hatchery that
sells baby birds
to growers and
operators.
“There’s a
lot more that
we don’t know
than we know
right now,” Osterholm said.
“I try not to be alarmist... but,
in my opinion, this is a major
public health risk not being
fully addressed by industry or
the USD A.”
The child he is represent
ing developed osteomyelitis, a
serious and painful bone infec
tion. She and at least one other
sickened Minnesota child
live in homes that fed their
dogs raw pet food containing
ground turkey, according to
the Minnesota Department
of Health.
“(My clients) were doing
exactly what everyone else
does with their turkey. They
weren’t doing anything crazy,”
Osterholm said. “But when it is
this virulent, just a little can get
you sick, even under the very
best of preparation methods.”
Consumer Reports and
The Center for Science in the
Public Interest, a Washington,
D.C.-based watchdog and con
sumer advocacy group, are
urging the USDA to release
the names of the suppliers it
has identified as being associ
ated with food tainted in the
outbreak.
“When an outbreak is wide
spread and slow burning, and
the agency still hasn’t figured
out the source, they are in a
difficult position because they
don’t have that very specific
advice to give consumers in
terms of issuing a recall,”
said Laura MacCleery, CSPI’s
policy director. “But when
you are coming up on a major
holiday where you know con
sumers are likely to consume
the food in question, we think
the agency has an obligation
to give consumers whatever
information it does have.”
Symptoms include diarrhea,
fever and stomach cramps
and usually develop in 12 to 72
hours after exposure. Illness
can last up to a week and most
people recover without medi
cal treatment, the CDC says.
Authorities say
consumers can
still eat turkey this
Thanksgiving,
but stress the
importance of
proper handling
and cooking
techniques.
Fuel costs
may not send
holiday airfares
much higher
BY LAUREN ZUMBACH
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Despite unusually high jet fuel
prices, travelers shouldn’t necessarily expect
sky-high airfares during the Thanksgiving and
Christmas travel seasons. But watch out for
those fees.
A record 30.6 million passengers are
expected to fly on U.S. airlines during the
12-day Thanksgiving travel season, an indus
try trade group said Wednesday. Those who
haven’t flown since the summer vacation sea
son might run into higher bag fees — JetBlue
Airways, United Airlines, American Airlines
and Delta Air Lines raised them.
Though jet fuel prices have declined in
recent weeks, U.S. airlines were paying about
30 percent more for each gallon of fuel in the
first nine months of this year, from the com
parable period last year, according to the U.S.
Department of Transportation. The extra
costs wiped out increases in passenger-related
revenue in the first nine months of the year,
according to John Heimlich, vice president
and chief economist at industry group Airlines
for America.
The average domestic airfare was about
4.5 percent lower in the second quarter of
2018 from the comparable quarter last year,
according to the Transportation Department.
That’s the most recent period for which data
are available. But travel price prediction ser
vice Hopper also hasn’t seen much of a change
in prices for the holiday season compared
with last year, said chief data scientist Patrick
Surry.
At least some of the recovered costs are
coming from passengers. United, American
and Delta all reported increases in the amount
of passenger-related revenue they brought in
during the third quarter of 2018, accounting for
changes in the number of seats available and
miles flown, compared with the third quarter
last year.
While fares tracked by the Transportation
Department have declined, they don’t include
all the “extras” passengers might pay for, like
a more desirable seat or checked luggage. Fees
for bags and flight changes also declined in the
first half of the year, according to Airlines for
America. But this fall, JetBlue, United, Delta
and American raised fees for the first checked
bag by $5, to $30.
“They’d like you to focus on the low price,
and what they’d just as soon not have anyone
focus on is the billions (of dollars) in additional
fees they drive for the ancillary services that
get people what they really wanted to begin
with,” said Robert Mann, a New York-based
airline industry consultant.
Airlines have other ways of covering higher
fuel bills, Heimlich said. Those include efforts
to use less fuel _ like Delta, which said new,
more efficient aircraft helped offset higher
prices _ while keeping other costs low, cutting
less profitable flights, and bringing in more
credit card and cargo revenue.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian declined to speculate
on future airfares during a call with investors
last month. But he said Delta expects to con
tinue being able to pass along the cost of any
future oil price increases, pointing to the strong
economy and “very healthy” demand for Del
ta’s product.
Still, airfares are expected to rise as the busi
est days of the holiday travel season approach.
Fares for domestic flights around Thanksgiv
ing began increasing about a month before
departure last year, while Christmastime air
fares rose gradually through November before
rising more rapidly in the two weeks before the
holiday, according to Hopper.
Data could be what Ford sells next for new revenue
FORD I Tribune News Service
Ford Smart Mobility, LLC acquires Spin, a San Francisco-based electric
scooter-sharing company that provides customers an alternative for first-
and last-mile transportation.
BY PHOEBE WALL HOWARD
Detroit Free Press
As Ford Motor Co. continues a
global reorganization that is certain
to include significant job reduc
tions, one way forward could lie in
Ford Credit and the consumer data
it collects.
More than $1 in $3 in profit is
coming not from car or truck sales
but the finance entity that makes
loans to more than 5,000 car deal
ers and 4 million customers, mostly
in the United States and Canada.
That’s up from $1 in $4 in 2017,
according to regulatory documents.
Potential clues to the future path
of Ford can be provided partly by
Facebook, which has illustrated
to shareholders the value of using
customers’ personal information to
earn billions. Advertisers buy not
the customer information itself but
access to the consumer based on
data about their lifestyles.
Last week, Ford announced the
purchase of the electric scooter
company Spin, an acquisition that
brings with it a new trove of data
about how people travel. The value
of the company may be less in the
hardware than the tracking that
goes along with use of the scoot
ers. When do people travel? What
are key travel routes? What days of
week see the most use?
A Nov. 8 news release announc
ing the scooter purchase explicitly
noted that the carmaker would
share user data with partner cities.
Data mining is a highly lucrative
revenue stream.
General Motors recently tracked
the habits of 90,000 drivers in Chi
cago and Los Angeles who agreed
to have their car-radio listening
habits tracked to assess the poten
tial relationship between what they
listen to and what they buy.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett provided
a glimpse into what sounds like a
potentially massive data mining
plan. His remarks were made dur
ing a Freakonomics Radio inter
view for a podcast released Nov. 8.
“We have 100 million people
in vehicles today that are sitting
in Ford blue-oval vehicles. That’s
the case for monetizing opportu
nity versus an upstart who maybe
has, I don’t know, what, they got
120, or 200,000 vehicles in place
now. And so just compare the two
stacks: Which one would you like to
have the data from?” Hackett said,
according to the podcast transcript.
“The issue in the vehicle, see, is:
We already know and have data
on our customers. By the way, we
protect this securely; they trust us,”
Hackett said. “We know what peo
ple make. How do we know that?
It’s because they borrow money
from us. And when you ask some
body what they make, we know
where they work, you know. We
know if they’re married. We know
how long they’ve lived in their
house because these are all on the
credit applications. We’ve never
ever been challenged on how we
use that. And that’s the leverage we
got here with the data.”
Ford Credit has provided financ
ing since 1959 to customers to buy
or lease Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
The company also finances dealer
vehicle inventory and capital loans
for dealership improvements, and
other products and services for cus
tomers and dealers.
The cash flow, which rarely gets
much media attention, is staggering
by any objective measure.
So far in 2018, Ford Credit has
accounted for 35 percent of Ford
profits, or nearly $2 billion of $5.5
billion in total profit, according to
company documents filed with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Com
mission. That’s up from last year,
when Ford Credit generated 24 per
cent of Ford profit, or $2.3 billion of
$9.6 billion total.
But the financial picture is
changing.
“Automakers will lose money
on electric cars for years to come.
None of them knows exactly how
they’re going to make money on
autonomous cars,” said John McEl-
roy, a veteran industry observer
and host of Autoline.tv. “But they
could make a fortune monetizing
data. They won’t need engineers,
factories or dealers to do it. It’s
almost pure profit.”
While Wall Street analysts note
that Ford Credit just reported its
best earnings quarter in seven
years, Garrett Nelson of CFRA
Research expressed concern about
the strength and direction of the
Dearborn-based company.
“Its international operations
continue to lose money across the
board with the exception of the
Middle East and Africa,” Nelson
said. “While year-over-year com
parisons may begin to improve
in the next few quarters, we think
Ford faces significant operational
and cost headwinds from tariffs
and slowing demand across several
markets, and we continue to have
a low degree of confidence in man
agement’s ability to successfully
engineer a turnaround.”
Analyzing what’s currently mak
ing money, how to increase those
margins and find new sources of
cash are top priorities for a global
carmaker seeing major financial
loss in markets outside the United
States and Canada.
■ Please see FORD, 4D
