By Douglas V. Gibbs
My grandfather returned home from World War II after serving in Europe as part of the Army/Air Corps and became a farm worker in California’s Central Valley. My mother was born in Bakersfield, and since Grandpa was a sharecropper, her early life existed in a small, one-room shack with a dirt floor. At the time, California was the breadbasket of the world. We exported more food than we imported. Even during the height of the Cold War, it was American food production that kept those hungry in the Soviet Union from starving to death.
Our free market system, quality of food production, and rules regarding production have made America’s food supply the safest and most efficient in the world. We have better processes, plentiful farmland, and superior water supplies.
In July 2026, we face a widespread Cyclospora outbreak affecting 34 states and over 7,000 people. Finger-pointing has quickly filled the political sphere online, with accusations of relaxed regulations by the Trump administration at the top of the list. I saw one headline that read that the Cyclospora outbreak would not have happened under a Democratic President.
It is precisely the policies of the Democrats that caused the outbreak, for it is the Democrats who have driven food production out of the country. The policies of the Democrats have changed California’s Central Valley into a region starving for water and producing less than it used to. Democratic Party farm policies, starting with the New Deal, are largely to blame. The reality is that in places like Mexico – where the Cyclospora outbreak originated – the regulations for safer food production and the quality of the water used do not even come close to the level of safety and quality as in America.
Cyclospora is a human-transmitted parasite resistant to chlorination, and it often contaminates produce via surface water irrigation tainted by human waste. In Mexico, as we see with homeless and illegal alien populations in America, there is a problem with sanitation, and therefore human waste particles winding up in places other than sanitation systems. If we were growing our lettuce (the produce blamed for the recent outbreak) and other food in America, the Cyclospora outbreak would not be an issue. In short, the public health risks we face in America from food grown in other countries rather than the United States is completely the fault of the Democratic Party and their farm policies.
Cyclospora infections are unique as they are only transmitted by humans – not farm animals. Chlorination and chemical disinfection are ineffective. The Food and Drug Administration notes that microfiltration, ozone, or UV treatments may be necessary to effectively decrease populations of C. cayetanensis. At the moment, the outbreak is known to be in 34 states, and there have been roughly 7,000 confirmed cases. The numbers are likely significantly underestimated since many people are not being tested – the numbers are based on cases that become public because the person seeks medical attention. And while lettuce is currently the alleged culprit, other produce like raspberries, basil, cilantro, and salad mixes (to name a few) may also be infected.
Most of our produce is grown and harvested either in foreign countries that do not use the same standards we use, or by migrant farm workers who may operate their lives in a manner that we might deem unsafe and unhealthy. These workers may also be vulnerable to infectious diseases because of their living environment. Employer-provided housing tends to be crowded, often with poor sanitation, and incoming workers may be contaminated, with that contamination going undetected indefinitely. While working in the fields, the standard should be that clean drinking water and bathroom breaks should be given liberally, particularly when temperatures are hot. However, in the industry, complaints about not being given adequate breaks are common.
In America, Occupational Health and Safety Administration rules mandate reasonable toilet and hand-washing services be available to workers, but enforcement of these rules, much less adherence to them, can be difficult to monitor or ensure.
During the whole process, the likelihood is that the water used for irrigation is becoming contaminated, be it from the workers or other sources along the irrigation line. But nobody wants to report any failures along the way because they fear losing their job, or in the case of illegal aliens, they fear being deported.
Keeping farming in America and making sure workers are not illegally in the country would greatly alleviate the problems associated with the cause of outbreaks. And this idea that migrant workers perform tasks Americans would not be willing to do is a false argument. My grandfather was a farm worker. My son applied to be a farm worker once but was denied the job because his Spanish was not fluent. If we wish to avoid these outbreaks in the future, farm workers need to be legally in the country, and operations need to be monitored to ensure they are not violating standards that might lead to a new public health crisis. And understand, that does not mean we should increase funding to federal agencies. That means we need to redirect funds to assist in monitoring and return many of the responsibilities back to the states who are, in a word, closer to the operations from a structural perspective. We have the technology for greater monitoring of farm operations and the constitutional requirement to send those responsibilities back to the states. Despite arguments to the contrary, the solution is not more federal money thrown at it or heavier federal regulation – it’s a partnership between American growers and the states, and incentives that will bring growing our food back inside these United States.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
