When I've written about food borne illnesses in the past, whether it was Mad Cow or E.Coli, it was always in the abstract. Though the news stories surrounding both of the topics above seemed pervasive in the national media, I never seemed to know of anyone, or be contacted by anyone who had been directly affected by those diseases. Over the past several days, this has changed. I've spent the weekend reading both e-mails and comments from people who were/are directly affected by the...