Publisher’s Platform: Put Me Out of the Lettuce Business. Please.

Strawberries in February: The Cyclospora outbreak and the cost of convenience

By Will Atwater Takeaways: The largest cyclosporiasis outbreak on record in the U.S. this past summer sickened 12,883 people in 21 states, including North Carolina, before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared it over on Sept. 11. The outbreak, which led to 570 hospitalizations and two deaths, was linked to iceberg lettuce from […]

Publisher’s Platform: Put Me Out of the Lettuce Business. Please.

The largest Cyclospora outbreak in American history is over, and the next crop is going in the ground. Washington dismantled the system that would have caught it, Congress wrote letters instead of holding a hearing, and the produce industry pointed at the water.

FDA Put Ten Cyclospora Commitments in Writing for the 2027 Growing Season. The Office of Produce Safety Deserves the Credit. The Rule That Would Have Found the Lettuce Faster Is Still the One Congress Will Not Let FDA Enforce Until July 2028.

I am somewhere over Greenland on my way home. On Friday, Dr. Donna Garren, who directs the Office of Produce Safety at FDA, sent her stakeholder list a short email with four FDA links on this summer’s Cyclospora outbreaks, and asked readers to look at one in particular: a list of ten things FDA commits to doing before the...