Why is there shit in our lettuce?

The Cyclospora Outbreak

Cyclospora is a tiny parasite found in feces. That’s what it is. It’s poop. One would expect that exposure to this thing would be limited then, to eating meat, which frequently gets poop smeared on it during the gutting process, when the animal’s belly is sliced from end to end, and its intestines are pulled out. Intestines contain poop. So as they pull them out of the animal’s body, they’re attached of course, they’re not loose in there. So they have to cut, and anytime the intestine is nicked with the blade, poop oozes out. It gets all over the animal flesh—the part that’s eaten.

They rinse it off, and send it on its way.

It’s easy to see why poop-borne parasites and bacteria would be a risk factor for those who eat meat.

But why the fuck is that shit in my lettuce?

Reason 1: Feed Lots and Irrigation

In some of the largest cattle feed lots, with cows crowded together damn near shoulder to shoulder, a canal runs alongside the animals. A ditch, really. Water is constantly running through the ditch. The cows are only able to do a few things; eat, drink, piss, and shit. And grow, which is the entire point.

The manure runs into the canal, and the canal carries it away.

In many cases, that same canal water goes into the irrigation system that waters the lettuce.

Why is this legal? Damned if I know.

Solution: Make using manure-water in crop irrigation illegal. Manure can be used as fertilizer, but only by mixing it deep into the soil where it can nourish the roots with nitrogen. It should never be added in any way that brings it into contact with the above ground parts of the plant.

Reason 2: Human Piggies

People who work in produce processing plants can and do contaminate our produce by handling it with dirty hands. Specifically, microscopic particles of poop because they didn’t wash their hands or didn’t wash them well after pottying.

Solution: Employees wear gloves. They have to leave the gloves in a trashcan on way to restroom and don a fresh pair on way back. Make not washing hands a firing offense. They’re handling food, this has to be a zero tolerance zone.

Reason 3: Cross-Contamination

Sometimes foods that are contaminated in some other way, are processed in the same plants as foods that are not, and cross contamination occurs.

Solution: Regulation. Produce may never touch the same equipment, trucks, buildings, conveyors, or plants as any animal derived product. The two must be completely separate. Possibly not even handled by the same companies.

Reason 4: Government

The budget for the department that tracks and monitors Cyclospora contamination in the US food supply was slashed and gutted and all the experts fired, leaving our food supply at the mercy of…luck, I guess.

Solution: VOTE for leaders who believe in science.

How to be safe in the meantime

First, we know the outbreak came from TAYLOR FARMS. (Yes, they said was a mistake, right after Taylor Farms people met with our president and gave him a hefty donation. I’ll take science’s word for it, thanks.)

If you buy produce at Walmart, their “Marketside” brand comes from Taylor Farms. I just had to throw out a heartbreaking amount of greens.

I always try to buy organic, but since manure is organic, that does not protect us from parasites or bacteria.

Here are some things to do work.

• Organic Girl brand is a safe one, and their whole tagline is that their greens are “clean.” They cost more, however, and likely can’t be found everywhere.

• Locally grown greens from farm stands will be safe, but most small farmers fertilize with manure, so be sure you wash the greens. More on that below.

• Boiling fresh or frozen greens kills most of these contaminants.

• Physically washing—NOT simply rinsing—fresh greens is the only way to remove contaminated particles. You have to run your clean fingers over the surface of the green on both sides. Scrub the invisible dirt away. It won’t rinse off. It’s sticky. Rub it off. Then completely submerge them in a bowl of water and agitate them around, rubbing again each one you catch. Then scrub them against the sides of the colander as you run fresh water over them. Then take them out and squeeze them in a paper towel.

• Rinse bumpy produce in a solution of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, and use a salad spinner. In experiments with raspberries, using a vinegar solution and salad spinner removed 84% of Cyclospora while rinsing in water alone only removed 35%. For blueberries, 94% was removed with water alone, and the vinegar and spinner didn’t change that. So with bumpy items like raspberries, with more places for tiny contaminants to hide, use a vinegar solution and a salad spinner.

• Grow your own greens. I feel like this is my new goal in life, to grow my own greens and enough of them to sustain me. And I eat a lot of greens. Two and a half cups of frozen kale or collards a day just for my breakfast. I need a greenhouse, STAT, so I can grown them year-round.

Your personal resilience is key

If you were eating a plants-only diet, you were 76% less likely to get seriously ill or be hospitalized from Covid, even during the worst parts of the pandemic. Vegans are simply more resilient than meat eaters. Not only are our risks of cardiac disease and cancer lower—we recover faster and better from just about everything else.

So even if you get exposed to this parasite, if you’ve been eating healthily, your gut biome will deal with it far more efficiently. You’ll recover faster, and be less sick overall than meat-eaters will.

Key Takeaways:

• Physically scrub, don’t just rinse, your produce

• Use a vinegar solution for bumpy produce like raspberries. (1 cup white vinegar to 4 cups water is what I’m finding online.)

• Use a salad spinner

• Avoid Taylor Farms and grocery store brands that source from them - which is most of them

• Buy locally and grow your own

• Boiled greens are probably safe

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Sources:

(2026, July 16). Can Vinegar Kill Cyclospora? The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5970504-can-vinegar-kill-cyclospora-how-to-wash-produce-amid-parasite-outbreak/

Key TJ, Papier K, Tong TYN. Plant-based diets and long-term health: findings from the EPIC-Oxford study. Proc Nutr Soc. 2022 May;81(2):190-198. doi: 10.1017/S0029665121003748. Epub 2021 Oct 27. PMID: 35934687; PMCID: PMC7613518. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7613518/

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A personal note

You might know I’m a novelist by day. That’s where my living is made, but it’s also my passion. Of late, I’ve been gripped by a new project, a trilogy about four ladies of a certain age, best friends, who become vigilante pedophile hunters. I just felt like it was time.

The first one is coming in September. You can pre-order the eBook at Amazon.

But if you want it in paperback or hardcover editions, wait one more week, and you’ll be able to pre-order an autographed, personalized copy for yourself or as the perfect holiday gift for the booklover in your life. Click the image for more info on the book.

Click the image to see all the links!

I’ve planned it as a trilogy, and I’m writing the second book as we speak.

I’ve also been working on a play with playwright friend, and on another novel with my daughter Jessica, so we are really cooking with gas around here.

That means the blogs are fewer and further between, but there’s only one of me, and I do all my own writing. No AI for creating my stories or my blog posts.

I hope you’re enjoying all the articles and recipes here. I’ll get more up as soon as I can.