Cyclospora fears force lettuce farmers to plow fields under

America’s lettuce growers are tearing up healthy crops as consumer demand collapses under the weight of a nationwide cyclosporiasis outbreak, even on farms with no connection to the tainted product.

A grower in California’s Salinas Valley told the Wall Street Journal, in a report relayed by Fox News, that he had to chop up 300,000 pounds of romaine hearts and plow them back into the soil — despite no evidence his crops carried the parasite behind the outbreak. His operation, Coastline Family Farms, supplies major grocery chains and restaurants nationwide, but has still seen orders drop by as much as 30%, he said. 

“You can’t afford to be downcast very long,” the farmer told the Journal, adding that he intends to keep preparing his next fields for harvest.

The outbreak, tied to iceberg lettuce recalled by Taylor Farms, has grown well beyond its earliest tallies. As of a July 24 update from the FDA and CDC, the outbreak linked to Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce has sickened at least 1,947 people and led to 98 hospitalizations, with no deaths reported, across nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Federal officials say they are separately investigating other cyclosporiasis cases and clusters nationwide that are not considered part of the Taylor Farms outbreak.

Investigators traced the outbreak to iceberg lettuce from central Mexico recalled by Taylor Farms, the nation’s largest lettuce supplier — though health officials say the broader scare has rattled confidence in leafy greens across the board, well beyond the recalled product itself.

That anxiety has hit growers with no ties to the recall. A food scientist with the trade group Western Growers told the Journal that skittish shoppers are avoiding produce “out of an abundance of caution,” passing on items regardless of origin.

Not every grower is scaling back. Viraj Puri, founder of Brooklyn-based Gotham Greens, told the Journal his company chose against reducing its seeding despite the sales slump. “The public health benefits of a diet grounded in fruits and vegetables are indisputable,” he said, adding that he hopes consumers regain trust in store-bought produce.

Nationally, fresh lettuce sales fell nearly 9% between mid-June and July compared with the same period last year — roughly 7.6 million pounds — according to NielsenIQ data cited by the Journal. Sales of cauliflower, carrots, spinach, Brussels sprouts and even salad dressing have also softened. After an earlier cyclosporiasis case was linked to lettuce served at Taco Bell, the chain’s sales dropped 25% in a single week.

Some consumers are turning instead to farmers markets in search of lettuce they consider safer, though growers caution that shift represents only a small slice of the broader pullback from fresh greens.