Extinction Level Event (9 page)

Mike is, of course, already quite aware of this
little marketing twist on behalf of the companies, but decides not
to say anything. Miles continues to rant, “The best part is, that’s
not the only part. See everyone uses their herbicides on them’
farms. Ok. But then, after years and years, the plants
evolve
. Not our plants, of course not. The weeds. I heard
stories- in Utah, Colorado, what not. All these weeds get used to
these mass-produced herbicides and change! Later, they can’t use
their herbicides no more, and have to make new ones! Terrible for
farmers, cause we get invaded with superweeds. Of course, the
companies just make a new product and then we forced to buy
it”.

Listening patiently, Mike gives Miles a quick break
before resuming with his questions for the man. “I understand, Mr.
Miles. But we cannot do anything about that right now, and we
believe that those problems had nothing to do with this week’s worm
catastrophe. However, did you have any previous record of any plant
or animal disease outbreak on your farm?” Miles pauses, scratching
his head. “Did you?”. “No! Of course not”, answers Miles sternly.
“Between all the vaccines for the cattle and the herbicides for the
crops, I never had any major problem here. No plant diseases, no
animal diseases. All good, until two days ago. Then this craziness
started happening”. Taking notes on a notepad, Mike looks up at
Miles, responding, “Very well, Mr. Miles. Thanks again for your
time. If we need anything else we can find you here, right?” “Sure,
no problem Inspector. I’m always right here”. “You could call me
Mike”. “Sure, Mike”. Mike returns to the APHIS van in the
driveway.

Mark turns around in the van, catching Mike’s eye
before he can get into the van’s cargo compartment. “Hey Mike, LA
just called in. They say that two other locations have recently
called their office, citing cases similar to ours. One of them is
located at another farm, and the other at a private house. This is
in addition to the private home that called earlier. They would
like for us to check them all out. Their team will also be here
shortly” “Fine. We head over to the private residence that LaJoy
visited earlier on today. I’ll tell Miles that we’re leaving and
that he is to expect a team from LA over here soon”. Mike gets out,
once again walks over to Miles who is still swinging in his
hammock. After telling him that they are leaving and that a team
from LA should arrive within the hour, McCarthy returns to the van.
“Of course he uses Cleanup-ready seeds, what else would he use if
he uses Groundup products? And according to him, no past history of
disease or infections on his farm. The private residence is what,
0.6 miles from here?”. “Yes”, replies Laurie. Mike pulls the van
out of the driveway and begins driving along Lake Road. Within five
minutes the APHIS team members pull into the Williams’
driveway.

As soon as Mike turns off the engine a couple emerges
from the house, attracted by the engine noise. Mark, Laurie, and
Mike get out quickly to greet them, with a few pleasant surprises.
“Mike”. “Mike”. “I guess that makes this easier”, replies McCarthy
with a smile. “We’re only going to be here a short while. Just
collect some samples and leave”. Michelle replies, “Not a problem.
Would anyone like some drinks?”. “No thanks, Ma’am. Again we’re
only here to take some samples, nothing more”. With that, the team
disperses throughout the grounds. With a semi- grin, Mark asks the
McCarthy’s, “You don’t mind me digging up your garden a little?”
“Only a small bit!”, comes the quick and equally jesting reply.
Mark gets down on his knees and starts taking soil samples. Mike
comes up to the other Mike asking for the Groundup SuperPower
container that was used just days ago. “Sure, no problem. Actually
,we were gonna give it to you anyways- kind of an early Christmas
present!”. Grinning at the disastrous attempt at humor, McCarthy
happily obliges and takes the container and places it in the back
of the truck. After several pounds of soil and a pound of worms
have been collected from the premises, the team packs up and
leaves. With a quick flurry of handshakes and promises that the
problem will be resolved, the APHIS team is back on the road
heading to the next location.

While Mark drives the van, Mike turns to Laurie.
“Both of these cases involved the use of SuperPower. We still need
to confirm that, but I think it should be taken off the shelves.
Could you call LA and tell them that?” “Sure”. Laurie takes out her
cell phone and dials. “Oh, also. Tell them we need to get a worm
ecology expert down here to assess the damage that these properties
are going to get. And a worm biologist wouldn’t hurt either”.
Laurie nods, as she gets a connection. “Hi, this is Laurie Weisman
from APHIS Stockton. We have strong reason to believe that the worm
die-out cases near Bakersfield are related to the new herbicide
Groundup SuperPower. We strongly recommend that it be pulled off
the shelves immediately”. A short pause ensues as LA responds to
Laurie’s recommendation. Mike does not hear anything from the other
side of the phone line. “We also need a worm ecology expert, and a
worm biologist to be at the site near Bakersfield as soon as
possible”. After getting a response from LA, Laurie disconnects and
folds the phone. “They said that they will pass your
recommendation, but cannot of course enact it. That has to be done
by the Feds. And in order to do that, they will need definitive
evidence for the correlation.” “I thought they would say that. How
predictable.”

Mike takes out his cell phone just as Laurie places
hers in her jeans pocket. “What do you need that for? I just made
the call.” “Not that, of course! We’ll need a motel, we might as
well find one now. Two rooms?” “Two rooms would be fine. Wait-what
about Mr. LaJoy?” “He’s going back to Los Angeles right now. He
told me he lives there, so it shouldn’t be a problem for him.”
Laurie sits back trying to enjoy the ride while Mike searches his
iphone for motels near Bakersfield.
Something fairly comfortable
and cheap. Hmmm, maybe not too cheap. USDA foots the bill; but
that’s only to a certain limit.
Mike decides that any ordinary
motel nearby should be fine. After finding a suitable motel using
Google Maps
, including one covered by USDA expenses policy,
Mike dialed the motel and reserved two rooms. With that done, Mike
turns to Mark. “How far away is this site?” Laurie answers, “about
forty-six miles from here. It’s a private residence, located on
Browning Road in McFarland. The address is 36 Browning Road”. “I
already knew that. Traffic is getting worse, its nearing rush
hour”, adds Mark, observing cars slowing down ahead of them.
Traffic slows down to twenty miles an hour on a forty-mile per hour
limit zone. Everyone looks at each other, Laurie rolls her eyes.
“We should have seen this coming”. “It was coming”, answered Mark.
“We could have left either earlier or later. Just now isn’t the
best time”.

“Obviously.” Silence once again reigns in the van as
the traffic slowly waddles down the two-lane road. After twenty
minutes of crawling along, the team pass a crashed vehicle
surrounded by three police cruisers. One uniformed officer is
directing traffic. Following his instructions, the van takes the
right lane and traffic speeds up again past the crash site.
Unfortunately for the team, traffic was diverted on a side road
detour, thus adding yet another twenty minutes to the already
monotonous journey. Upon arriving on McFarland Road the scenery
changes from the flatlands of golden-green crops to a small patch
work of tightly-knit suburban homes. “Welcome back to suburbia”,
exclaims Mark. “So we are going to. . . 36 Browning Road”. A number
of cul-de-sacs extend out of Browning Road and form small private
communities along the main road. Each cul-de-sac has approximately
ten driveways leading away, each one to a typical Californian
orange-white ranch-style home. Mark pulls into the first
cul-de-sac, parks the van to the side of the large paved circle,
and shuts down the engine.

The team members exit the vehicle and gather in
front. “36 is. . . that one”, Mike points at one of the houses
around the cul-de-sac. The three APHIS officials walk over to the
house and ring the doorbell. Hearing footsteps approach, the team
take a step back as a woman in her forties answers the door. “Hi!
You must be from the Department of Agriculture. You have to see
this!”, she exclaims in a slightly accented voice. “I am Carmen
Ibarez”, extending her hand to the team. After introducing
themselves quickly, Carmen leads the team members through the
house’s Spanish-style interior to the backyard. As she leads them,
she continues the conversation. If anyone expected this
conversation to be any different than the previous ones the APHIS
team had during their day, they were disappointed. Laurie, Mark,
and Mike quickly realize that everything Mrs. Ibarez is describing
matches the same pattern that they have seen on both the Miles’
Farm and the Williams’ property. “And you see, then we got all the
worms coming out of the tierra??. . ground? When they come out of
the ground, they go around after two hours they die. Very strange,
no? All the worms dead quickly, after only an hour, maybe two.”

“Mrs. Ibarez, this is similar to another case that we
have had recently. We are working on the problem as fast as we can.
Can you tell us if you used Groundup products for your house
garden?”. “Cleanup? I use a. . .herbicide? Yes, a herbicide?”
“Groundup is the name of the herbicide in question. Could you
please show us your herbicide?” “Yes, of course. I’ll be back in
one moment please”. Mrs. Ibarez leaves the team standing in the
backyard while she scuttles back into the home. Within a minute,
she is back outside with a large pump-can of Groundup SuperPower.
“This is the herbicide. My husband bought it a few days ago. He’s
sleeping now, though. . . you don’t need him for anything?”, she
asks in her slightly high-pitched voice. “Not really”, replies
Laurie. With a quick smile she adds, “You don’t need to wake him up
just for us”. Mrs. Ibarez nods before continuing, “Very well. I’ll
be in the house. But if you need anything, please tell me!”. With
that, she goes back in through the sliding door, leaving the team
members to start their work. “Alright, you all know the procedure.
Let's get those samples and get out of here as soon as possible”.
As if on cue, Laurie and Mark take out kits and equipment out of
their bags while putting on the latex gloves.
Forgot to ask if
we can dig up the garden. Let me see.
Mike knocks on the door’s
glass pane before opening the door and entering the house. Seeing
Mrs. Ibarez in the kitchen, Mike goes over. “Excuse me, Mrs.
Ibarez. Can we take soil out of your garden?” Carmen Ibarez turns
around and faces Mike. “Ok. I think that should be ok. No problem
with me".
That means go.
Mike returns to the backyard and
picks up the pump-can of Groundup SuperPower, only to see Mrs.
Ibarez coming out of the sliding doorway. “Mr. McCarthy, I forgot
something. Two of my neighbors were over here earlier. They wanted
to use some of our herbicide, and I said that would be ok. Maybe
you should check their homes as well?” Mike thinks it through.
“Yes, that would be a great idea. Thank you for telling us. Can we
get their names and addresses?” “Absolutely.”

Mrs. Ibarez returns a few minutes later with a sheet
of folded paper in her hands. “Here. I’ve written down the
addresses of our neighbors, but let me point them out”. Motioning
for him to follow, Mrs. Ibarez walks towards the front of the
house. Once outside the front door, she beckons with her hand,
“That is the Hoffman’s house, the first on the list. The second is
on the other cul-de-sac over there, behind ours.” Mike graciously
takes the paper and puts it in his jacket pocket. “Can you call
them and tell them that we are USDA officials and we would like a
look at their property? Please tell them we’ll be over in about ten
minutes”. “Ok. I’ll see if they’re home. They should be home I
think.” Mike walks through the house to the backyard, where Laurie
and Mark are wrapping up the collection of soil and earthworm
samples. “Hey guys. Are you finished? We need to walk over to
another house on the block. They may have the same problem soon
enough. Mrs. Ibarez here informed me that they used Groundup
SuperPower today”. Mark eyes light up, as if he had just had an
incredible idea. “If they used the herbicide today, and only a few
hours ago, then their worms are probably still alive. We need those
samples immediately”. Laurie finishes packing the equipment and
samples into carry-all bags which are then taken up by the three
team members. After saying farewell and thanks to Mrs. Ibarez, who
did in fact tell the Hoffman neighbors that the APHIS team will
arrive shortly, the three team members leave the Ibarez house and
walk across the cul-de-sac to the Hoffman house. Walking up, Mike
rings the doorbell.

The door is opened by a man in his late sixties.
After introducing themselves, the man, whose name is Walter
Hoffman, shows the team to his garden. Along the way they hear the
story that they expected to hear- Mr. Hoffman had borrowed Mrs.
Ibanez’s SuperPower Groundup herbicide earlier during the day to
use on his plants. The neighbors regularly exchanged small favors,
and this was one of those favors. He said he wasn’t a big fan of
herbicides, but he needed to keep his garden clean of pests and
insects. Mike digested the information quickly, before proceeding
to ask the man all the usual questions- history of plant disease,
insect infestations, frequency of herbicide use, etc. The team goes
into his garden ready to take live samples. When they enter through
another sliding door, all they see are dead worms.
How is this
possible? I thought the effect takes days, not hours! Mrs. Ibanez
used it several days ago. This guy used this only what, six hours
ago at the most?
Looking around him, Mike notices equal
expressions of surprise on both Laurie’s and Mark’s faces.
They
both expected the same result as I did: worms coming out of the
ground en masse, but still alive. Why are they all already
dead?
Mike thinks to himself, while helping Laurie unpack the
bag and get the containers for the samples out. The three work
together quickly, collecting the usual samples and placing the
zip-loc bags into containers. Mike voices his thoughts for the rest
of the day. “It is getting late. We should take these samples and
head for the motel. Spend a few hours today getting some results
from every sample that we collected.” “I concur”, agrees Mark.
Laurie nods her head affirmatively in response. With the
acknowledgement of all three, Mike shoulders the bag and heads
through the house to the van with Laurie and Mark behind him. They
thank Mr. Hoffman for his time and brief hospitality before leaving
the premises.