On July 1, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reduced its foodborne illness active surveillance network from eight pathogens to two. Maintain FoodNet salmonella Shiga toxin production E. coli. fell Campylobacter, Listeria, Shigella, vibrio, Yersinia – and Cyclospore. The reason given was money.
Biggest after 12 months and 18 days Cyclospore The largest outbreak in U.S. history began appearing in Michigan emergency rooms. No one could count it. The CDC has identified 1,644 cases linked to Taco Bell across five states. More than 5,000 are reported in Michigan alone. Nationally, the number is or is likely to exceed 9,000 in 2026, compared to 2,700 in all of 2025. The honest answer is that no one knows because we stopped investigating on July 1st of last year.
I want to be careful here. Because the easy version of this story is wrong. This is not a Republican story. This is not the Democratic Party’s story. It’s the story of an industry that spent 14 years, led by presidents of both parties, dismantling the tools that could have protected it, and now stands in ruins wondering why no one can figure out whose lettuce was making people sick so quickly.
Start from 2012. The United States Department of Agriculture had a program called the Microbial Data Program. It costs about $5 million a year. State labs sampled high-risk produce already in commerce, including lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, sprouts, and tomatoes, and immediately notified the FDA, CDC, and state health officials when the lab discovered pathogens. From 2002 to 2011, we ran 120,887 samples across 42 states. In 2010 and 2011 alone, there were 23 produce recalls, 15 of which involved people who were already sick. It was a trip wire.
President Obama zeroed it out in the 2013 fiscal year budget. Rosa DeLauro asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about this issue in February 2012 and received a response that said the program was inconsistent with the mission of the Agricultural Marketing Service. And my friend Dan Flynn wrote a column about this in Food Safety News with the one-word title: Blood. His first line was “Big Fresh has blood on his hands.” Big Fresh was the United Fresh Produce Association, and Dan gave paid lobbyists credit for the murder. Fourteen years later, United Fresh is no more. In 2022, it merged with the International Fresh Produce Association. The lobby does not disappear even if the letterhead changes.
Read Dan’s article from 2012 and read this month’s news. He said killing MDP would prevent the FDA, CDC and state health departments from finding out about pathogens occurring on fresh produce. That’s no longer analysis. This explanation is from July 2026.
In December 2024, under the Biden administration, the FDA cut funding for state and local food safety programs. This program is responsible for conducting half of all food processing facility inspections, 90% of produce safety inspections, and every single retail inspection in the country. Four Democratic senators — Dick Durbin, Richard Blumenthal, Tina Smith and Cory Booker — wrote a letter objecting. They warned that the cuts would undo years of progress towards an integrated food safety system. They were ignored.
Then, in February and April 2025, DOGE/Trump was laid off and food safety staff at the FDA and CDC were also lost. In March 2025, the FDA announced a 30-month extension of its food traceability rules. FoodNet was removed on July 1st. Cyclospore. In November, Congress made the traceability delay binding until July 20, 2028. And STAT reported in December that state health departments, which do much of the early work on foodborne illnesses, are so dependent on federal block grants that they can’t even track the money to measure how much has been lost.
3 administrations. Both parties. One direction.
And the industry wasn’t a bystander until the last part. FMI called the food traceability rules “overly complex” and said the requirements were so burdensome that they could not be achieved with available technology. FMI applauded the 30-month delay. The National Grocers Association applauded the move. The Global Cold Chain Alliance said it was encouraged by the delay. In 2024, three members of Congress, with support from FMI and NGA, introduced legislation that would go further, delaying compliance again and eliminating lot code requirements altogether for restaurants, retail stores, and warehouses. The Safe Food Coalition fought the delay and lost. The same was true for the Public Interest Science Center.
Here is the ledger. The produce lobby killed the only program testing produce for pathogens. Surveillance for this particular parasite was discontinued a year before this particular outbreak. Rules allowing anyone to trace a bag of shredded lettuce to the field within 24 hours have been postponed until 2028 amid cheers from the industry. And all of that consisted of relief from burden, cost, and complexity.
Now look what that relief bought.
It took the FDA until July 16 to name the food. The illness began on May 13th. When the FDA finally issued a recall notice, it did not include lot codes and identified customers as CV, JB, MARK, MKTSD, PK, SUB, SY, and TF. Positive samples have turned up at the border, and the FDA reports that the contaminated premises are not subject to the recall and may be commercial or in individuals’ homes. No one can tell where it went. Because no one should be able to speak. Meanwhile, grocery stores pulled the bags, Sysco pulled the products, national chains pulled ingredients from every restaurant they operate, and consumers across 34 states quietly stopped buying salads.
I think this is something the industry has yet to understand. Traceability is not a tax on the innocent. That’s the only thing that protects them. If a grower can be nominated in one day, one farm will lose money. If you can’t, it’s an entire category: every clean operation in Salinas and Yuma, every grower who’s done everything right, every processor with an impeccable record. LGMA likes to point out that about 90% of America’s lettuce is grown in California and Arizona. That’s the problem. 90% of lettuce is suspect if the source is unknown.
You can’t keep pathogens out through the lobby. There are abilities that can only be found in the lobby. And even if you succeed, you will continue to be criticized. You just lose the evidence that could exonerate you.
I said in my last post that I wanted to work with these organizations rather than yell at them, and I meant it. Let me tell you the constructive version. national restoration Cyclospore Monitor it and place it in water where parasites actually live. Restore funding for state and local prosecutors that has been cut by two administrations. Rebuild something like MDP. A $5 million trip wire is the cheapest insurance policy offered in this industry. And stop fighting FSMA 204. Do it according to your original schedule and talk about it out loud. Because the next time this happens, the rule you said was impossible to achieve is the only rule that stands between one bad lot and the entire crop.
Fourteen years ago, the produce lobby decided it didn’t want anyone testing lettuce. This summer, we took a look at the world we asked for. You have reaped what you have sown. Now is the time to plant something better.
