Uh, no. Nice conspiracy theory, but that's not what it is about. It comes from packing the meat where it is slaughtered. The cattle are snuffed, and the poop is all around. A little poop gets on the sides of beef as they go through the processing plant, and then the poop gets ground up in with the meat. Since poop is mostly e coli anyway, this is how meat gets contaminated. Steaks and roasts don't have that problem because you can wash them off.
Of course, the price of meat goes up because of the costs associated with recalls and lawsuit payouts. The supply goes down for a while as the meat plants have to shut down, clean up and get inspected to satisfy the regulators.
Always get your ground beef from a full-service supermarket or butcher shop where there is no poop.
My best price was for 73% lean ground beef was $2.20/lb for a ten pound unit. I have a freezer to put it in so I can buy it in bulk. Every time I hear ground beef was recalled because of e coli, I am thinking these meat processors are getting so big they become more vulnerable to quality control mistakes and cutting corners trying to save production costs. It is a big gamble because it makes them vulnerable to big mistakes that will cost them big even when they do have insurance (insurance rates will go up). The money they think they will save cutting corners will bite them. And people like me will see the cost of the product go up to the roof.