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THE VIEW FROM HERE - What’s the back story why lethal lettuce is stalking Americans? The media says that the culprit is not iceberg lettuce itself, but the disease which it carries all the way from Guanajuato, Mexico to American fast food chains and supermarkets. Beware of the microscopic parasite Cyclospora Cayetanensis (Cyclospora). “Cyclosporiasis" is the name of the actual disease, while "Cyclospora" is the parasite which transmits the disease. This article uses “C-Spora” for either.
By now, an evil corporate doer has been identified, Taylor Farms, but that is not totally accurate. The lettuce was allegedly grown by Taylor Farms de Mexico. If the lettuce makes you ill for weeks on end, you do not want to trundle all the way down to Guanajuato to sue. The litigation itself will make you sicker than the lettuce. As astute Americans can figure out, the American company Taylor Farms, headquartered in Salinas, California, owns the Mexican company, but the American company is isolated from paying for wrongdoing done by Taylor de Mexico.
Because Taylor Farms is totally private, it does not publish its financial data, but the manner in which it monetizes lettuce applies to other American companies with subsidiaries in Mexico. Long story short, the profit margin from Mexican lettuce (Lechuga de bola for tacos and Lechuga romana for salads) is much higher than for American born and bred lettuce. The higher profit margin for Mexican lechuga is further protected because C-Spora litigation in Mexico will net the seriously ill or dead American diddly squat.
There have been no successful consumer class action lawsuits in Mexican courts brought by American attorneys on behalf of U.S. consumers against a Mexican subsidiary of a U.S. corporation. Can we really say that statutes and regulations which are unenforceable are really laws?
The essence of monetization of anything from housing in LA to lechuga de Mexico has the same pattern. Corporations internalize profits and externalize liabilities. In LA, developers internalize profits, i.e., they keep all the profits from a high rise project, but they externalize the harm. Externalizing the liabilities means the developers let someone else bear the burden and cost of the homelessness and higher housing costs for the middle class which densification causes. With lettuce, Taylor Farm externalizes liabilities by not only avoiding litigation for sending C-Spora to America, but also by saving hundreds of millions of dollars due to the cheaper labor costs in Mexico. This situation is legal because Wall Street makes the laws and holding businesses liable for the harm that they cause is very unpopular on Wall Street.
The Boomerang Effect of Cheating Wokers
While it is easy to underpay workers in Mexico, worker abuse can come back to bite American corporations like Taylor Farms. On paper Mexico looks as if it robustly protects the consumer. The Mexican corporations can drag out volumes of laws to show how strong Mexico’s rule and regulations are, but the statutes are easily defeated. Because Mexican inspectors are underpaid so badly, American companies can easily bribe them. When the field toilet facilities drain onto the growing fields, the government inspectors can play Sgt Schultz from Hogan Heroes, “I see nothing, nothing at all.” In other words, if Taylor de Mexico wanted to water its crops with C-Spora, it could. If you were Taylor de Mexico would you insist that Mexico pay its government inspectors such high salaries that they would not accept bribes? That would make Taylor de Mexico persona non grata among other American manufactures who have moved to Mexico.
Stop Feeding Us C-Spora
On the other hand, Americans made sick at fast food chains may have a direct remedy. A new class action is starting in the fertile mind of some American attorney. He will name his lawsuit “Stop Feeding Us C-Spora.” Because C-Spora is harder to wash off than Covid, washing is futile. It must be cooked to kill the pathogen. Supermarkets who advise washing off C-Spora should incur heavy liability because washing provides no protection. Unless a supermarket can guarantee that its lettuce is free of C-Spora, it should not sell lettuce.
The Advice to Remove Outer Leaves and Wash Inner Leaves Harms Consumers!!!
Why US fast food joints and supermarkets might face justice in the American courts. The FDA and food safety experts explicitly state that washing does not reliably eliminate C-Spora. The parasite's sticky outer shell binds tightly to the leaves so that water rinses, chlorine, and even chemical sanitizers are unlikely to remove the microscopic S-Spora.
They say Ford could have made the Pintos safe for a cost of $11 per car. They say were wrong. Costs were less: (1) Plastic Baffle Addition -- cost $2.35 per car, or (2) Structural Rear Protection – cost $4.20 per car, or (3) Nylon Bladder Lining – cost $5.25 to $8.00 per car. Ford executives, however, weighed extra the manufacturing dollars against the costs of paying for severe burn injuries and the loss of life by a fiery inferno. Likewise, selling lettuce with a false warning may be cheaper than throwing away all the lettuce.
Why does American media broadcast the false lettuce remedy? American media is obsessed with its own Narratives – not with getting the facts right. Fact suppression has become a way of life for TV stations and even the written press like the New York Times. American media is far more concerned with protecting Hamas from its mass murder of Gazans and falsely blaming Israel than to fret over factual reporting about lethal lettuce.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a former Los Angeles-based attorney, an author, and political commentator. A long-time contributor to CityWatchLA, he is known for his incisive critiques of City Hall and judicial corruption, as well as his analysis of political and constitutional issues. Abrams blends legal insight with historical and philosophical depth to challenge conventional narratives. A passionate defender of civic integrity and transparency, he aims to expose misuse of power and advocate for systemic reform in local government. You may email him at [email protected])
