Ten to one you never heard of cyclospora contamination up to a couple of weeks ago. We had no reason to. If growers were doing their job and using uncontaminated water we never needed to….
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a heat-loving microscopic parasite that survives and matures in warm wet feces contaminated environments. How does it effect the human population at large? When feces polluted water is used to irrigate crops our crops get infected and we get sick. Sometimes very sick, up to weeks sick. Children and elderly can die…
Taylor Farms, a California-based farm in Salinas, Mexico, is at the center of this nationwide “explosive diarrhea crisis” that has left thousands clinging to their bathrooms and hospitalizing others.
Michigan must eat a lot of Taylor Farms shredded lettuce because they reported more than 5,000 cases, according to Associated Press. More then 1000 people in the state have been hospitalized, per the Center For Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC warned consumers to avoid shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Yet, so far, 31 states have reported infections.
My niece lives in Oklahoma, bless her heart she ate a ‘Crunchwrap Supreme’ with shredded iceberg lettuce last week at Taco Bell and is now coping with cramps, bloating, diarrhea, muscle pain and fatigue. All the symptoms of cyclospora contamination.
When people are infected with this parasite they will be excreting the organisms in their stool as their body desperately (and in an explosive manner) tries to deal with and eliminate this parasite invasion.
OUTBREAK
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection caused by a parasite transmitted to humans though contaminated food and water. To be blunt, outbreaks develop when vegetables are sprayed with water exposed to human poo. Taylor Ranch, the company implicated in the contaminated lettuce, grows about half billion heads a year. Each head requires about 15 gallons of water in a growing season. Half a billion heads comes to 7.5 billion gallons of water.
Crisp Head-Iceburg lettuce takes 70-100 days to mature….plenty of time to understand where the water is coming from to support it’s growth…
COVER-UP
While this health crisis was peaking, Bruce Taylor, owner of Taylor Farms, flew to Washington D.C. for a closed door meeting with the White House. Magically, reports were released the next day that there were no confirmed positive results from product testing of cyclospora at Taylor Ranch. The FDA apologized, saying “Sorry for the mistake” and that they could not find a single positive result of the parasite…..
Bruce Taylor contributed $1 million in March 2025 to the Trump White House, less than a week after the FDA announced it was delaying implementation of the “Food Traceability Rule”. We don’t know what kind of deal was made this time….but money talks….BS walks….
NOW WHAT?
Despite the retracted test, officials advised consumers and food operators to discard any remaining shredded iceberg lettuce matching the recall logs from June 29 thru July from Central Mexico. What busy household can match the recall logs of their lettuce all the way from central Mexico…..And how will we know when eating salad greens are safe again….who can we trust???
I Care About People
I Care About Our Health
I Care About Truth
This has all been heartbreaking to me. It’s all so blatant….
FINDING SAFE FOOD
Looking for a safer source for salad greens? We’re all in the same boat. I have tried growing all our salad greens but we are in hot, dry, mile high desert. It has proven to be difficult. Greens like overcast days, morning dew and lots of water. We eat a lot of salad so we buy the bulk of our greens and augment with greens I grow. We had been buying organic Earthbound Farms Spring Mix.
I just learned Taylor Farms acquired brands like Earthbound Farms in 2016. Not only that but they are the largest producer of organic leafy greens and organic chopped salad kits in the country. Joe looked in our fridge and, sure enough, there was a new box of Earthbound Farms Spring Mix. He tossed it.
This morning he went to Sprouts and bought their brand of spring mix. I later researched it, finding that Sprout’s brand salad greens collaborate with Taylor Farms. One more box of greens tossed.
I have since researched Organic Girl Greens. They grow their Spring Mix in Central California. We hope this will be our new go-to salad greens because we love-love-love our salads.