Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at how contaminated lettuce has changed salad eaters’ habits — and why local lettuce farms can’t keep up with demand.
An outbreak of cyclosporiasis has changed many salad eaters’ habits: They’ve become scared to scarf down lettuce and other leafy greens. Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of states associated with contaminated iceberg lettuce increased by six, bringing the total to 15. That followed a recall of bagged lettuce in 27 states last month. New Jersey was among those states. But it’s not clear whether Taylor Farms, the huge lettuce grower behind the recall, shipped lettuce to companies in states like New York that were not directly covered by the recall. As health experts scramble to understand how the food-borne parasite that causes cyclosporiasis can cause symptoms that come and go, I asked my colleague Julie Creswell, who has been covering the outbreak, for an update. You write that consumers’ distrust of Big Lettuce has been good for smaller, local producers. Is lettuce from farm stands safer? The short answer is: Maybe? The fear around Big Lettuce right now is a growing acknowledgment that we simply don’t know where the leafy greens in our salad bowl were grown. Was it California, Arizona or Mexico? With Big Agriculture, we don’t know how many hands touched that produce from field to bagged product. And we don’t know whether all sanitary and safety protocols were followed at each step of the process. I think smaller, local growers are perceived to be safer because the produce is coming from closer to consumers’ backyards — here in the New York area, from places like upstate New York. And these farms also tend to be smaller, family-run organizations. But at the end of the day, contamination can happen almost anywhere. You found a small, family-owned operation in upstate New York that’s having a different problem than cyclospora contamination. Oliver’s Produce, a small, family-run produce store in Marcellus, N.Y., can’t get the lettuce out of the ground on its farm fast enough to meet the demand. It saw lettuce sales double this July from last year’s levels. Sawyer Oliver, who owns the store with her husband, told me the store actually sold out of lettuce in mid-July, which never happens. Normally, customers go for the romaine and butter varieties, she said. But this July, even heads of iceberg lettuce flew out the door. How widespread is the outbreak? How many cases have state and city health departments tracked in New York? Cyclospora outbreaks occur every year. But this year’s outbreak is massive. Federal regulators are tracking about 22,000 confirmed and suspected cases of cyclosporiasis. And that’s likely undercounting, since many people either got sick earlier or are ill now and not seeking medical help or testing. New York State health authorities say there have been 833 diagnosed cases of cyclosporiasis since May, with 553 of those in New York City. Let’s talk about why this outbreak has been so confusing for consumers. It’s not always clear where lettuce in supermarkets and salad bars comes from, is it? Before this outbreak, Taylor Farms was hardly a household name. But in all likelihood, consumers were eating Taylor Farm produce nearly every day because it is by far the largest lettuce grower in the country. But only a portion of the lettuce it grows is actually sold at grocery retailers in salad kits that bear its name. A majority of its leafy greens are sold under various store brand names and in food service operations like restaurants. On that front, we know some of the iceberg lettuce that Taylor Farms recalled in July went to Taco Bell and Jack in the Box. But much of it went to large distributors, like Sysco and US Foods, that then trucked it to other restaurant chains or even hospitals, college campuses or camps. What happens now? And if the outbreak subsides, will consumers stop shopping locally for lettuce? So there will be a segment of consumers who have switched to buying lettuce from small produce stands or farmers’ markets and will continue to do so after cyclospora fades from headlines. But other price-conscious consumers will go back to grocery-store lettuce because it tends to be cheaper than lettuce from farmers’ markets or produce stands. And while sales of prepackaged salads at grocery stores fell 20 percent in July from a month ago, that also tells you that plenty of consumers continue to buy their leafy greens from grocery store shelves, unconcerned about cyclospora. WEATHER Expect sunny but hazy skies on another hot day; the high will be 92. Tonight will be warm with a low of 75 and a chance of thunderstorms before midnight. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Saturday (Feast of the Assumption). QUOTE OF THE DAY “It’s 2026, not 1986.” — Assemblyman Tony Simone, Democrat of Manhattan and a sponsor of a bill to repeal a 40-year-old subsection of the state health code that prohibits establishments like bathhouses from allowing sexual activity. The latest New York news
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Dear Diary: On Nov. 5, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy came to the Bronx. My cousin Jerry and I were 10 years old and on our way to services at the temple, where we also attended Hebrew school five days a week. On that day, our minds were not on Hebrew or prayer. We wanted Kennedy buttons. The streets were packed and noisy, the kind of Bronx chaos that made an ordinary errand feel like history. Somewhere in the excitement, Jerry ran into the street and was hit by a city bus. The bus had to be emptied. Adults appeared. Plans were made for the bus to take Jerry to the hospital. I continued on to the temple. Once there, I found a landline and called my Aunt Shirley. “Jerry got hit by a bus” was all I told her. She was frantic. She didn’t drive, so a neighbor had to take her to the hospital. Jerry recovered with a cast on his broken leg. He also spent the next many years reminding me that, in his hour of need, I had abandoned him for temple. I am sure I learned many lessons that day: about religion, politics, devotion, public transportation and family responsibility. But we never did get the buttons. — Ira D. Cohen Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Davaughnia Wilson, Ama Sarpomaa and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
