![\"SALINAS,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784229142_563_0x0.jpg\")
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SALINAS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 10, 2023: During a break in the rain farm workers drain lettuce fields of flood water as an atmospheric river storm slams California in Salinas, California on Friday March 10, 2023. (Melina Mara\/The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n
As cases of Cyclospora-related diarrhea explode, the focus has been on identifying a particular food or ingredient that might be the source of the outbreak. But that narrow focus is short-sighted, missing that there are deeper factors that jeopardize us all. <\/p>\n
As background, several aspects of Cyclospora infections are unique. It is transmitted only by humans\u2014not by farm animals\u2014and the host may be asymptomatic, even while shedding the parasite in their stool. <\/p>\n
Outbreaks are usually traced to produce<\/a>\u2014historically, to raspberries (34%), basil (31%), cilantro (10%) and salad mixes (10%)\u2060. <\/p>\n Cyclospora is a single-celled parasite and takes 1-2 weeks<\/a> from the time it is excreted to develop in the environment before it can make people ill. This delay makes it more difficult to track the source.<\/p>\n Further, chlorination or chemical disinfection is ineffective<\/a>. The Food and Drug Administration notes that microfiltration, ozone or UV treatments may be necessary\u2060 to effectively decrease populations of C. Cayetanensis.<\/p>\n There are broad issues we should be focusing on as the outbreak continues to spread, now known to involve 34 states and 7,000 people<\/a> (confirmed and suspected). This is undoubtedly a significant underestimate because the Centers for Disease Control\u2019s tracking system has been scaled back and because many people may not be tested, or the special test required for diagnosis<\/a> may not be performed.<\/p>\n The outbreak is likely not due so much to one specific type of produce. Rather, it reflects problems with our agricultural system and growing failures in food safety. <\/p>\n How Is Produce Grown, Harvested And Processed?<\/p>\n We rely heavily on irrigation systems. A 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey found that 45% of all water used as irrigation came from surface water\u2060<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is important because surface water can be easily contaminated, and it doesn\u2019t take many organisms to cause infection. Contamination can occur from leaking septic and sewer systems, and from people\u2019s waste <\/a>and garbage\u2060. The Food Safety Modernization Act also allows growers to harvest produce up to four days after water is applied\u2014giving any contaminants a chance to multiply. <\/p>\n We need to examine all points in the chain, from the field to the final purchase, where contamination might occur. <\/p>\n Farm Workers<\/p>\n Most of our produce is grown and harvested by migrant farm workers. We should be looking at how they are treated and what their working and living conditions are like.<\/p>\n Amy Liebman, MPA, is the chief program officer for Migrant Clinicians Network<\/a>. She explains that some of the problem traces back to the workers \u201cbeing vulnerable to infectious diseases because of their living situation,\u201d which they have little control over.<\/p>\n Employer-provided housing is generally crowded; there is often poor sanitation. Drinking water may come from springs or wells. While wells are monitored before people move in, there is no requirement to check them again\u2014leaving the risk that contamination could go undetected indefinitely. <\/p>\n When working in the fields, workers are supposed to be given water and bathroom breaks, particularly in the heat. Complaints of not being allowed adequate breaks are common.<\/p>\n The Occupational Health and Safety Administration mandates that there be one toilet and one hand-washing facility for every 20 workers<\/a> and that these facilities be within a quarter-mile of each worker. But who is monitoring? <\/p>\n Liebman emphasizes, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the farm worker that is at the center of this. I think it has more to do with the crops being contaminated from other sources like irrigation water and then how we process and package our food.\u201d She also speaks about \u201cthe fear that\u2019s percolating through this population,\u201d noting \u201cworkers being afraid to report anything, fear of losing their job, and fear of being deported.\u201d <\/p>\n The farm workers aren\u2019t provided with sick leave or with reliable access to medical care. Thus, they are the initial victims in this disaster, because of the conditions they are forced to work and live under. They are the proverbial \u201ccanaries\u201d in this growing public health crisis.<\/p>\n Our Faltering Food Safety Systems <\/p>\n The greater failure is the growing lapses in food safety monitoring, with responsibilities divided among several agencies.<\/p>\n As many know, the Department of Government Efficiency initiated huge cuts to federal agencies. The CDC initially lost 2,889 of 9,769 employees (30%)<\/a>. The USDA\u2019s Food Safety Inspection Service (7,526 employees) lost 913 full-time employees. The FDA was cut by 4,332, and the USDA lost 22,253 jobs.<\/p>\n Initial case detection is done by local and then state health departments, with reports then fed to the CDC and FDA for further analysis. <\/p>\n FoodNet<\/a>, a sentinel surveillance system that includes 10 participating state health departments working with the CDC, USDA and FDA, is one part of the safety system, focusing on active surveillance, with investigators contacting laboratories and estimating how much a disease affects the population (disease burden). It doesn\u2019t detect or respond to an individual outbreak.<\/p>\n FoodNet conducted surveillance for Campylobacter<\/a>, Cyclospora<\/a>, Listeria<\/a>, Salmonella<\/a>, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli<\/a> (STEC), Shigella<\/a>, Vibrio<\/a> and Yersinia<\/a>. Since July 2025, reporting for all organisms except Salmonella and STEC became optional. <\/p>\n \u201cBy deleting cyclospora from FoodNet, the Trump administration cut off an important source of incoming information that, in this outbreak, might have provided an early warning of problems, or hints as to where the outbreak originated,\u201d J. Glenn Morris, M.D., MPH<\/a>, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute explained.<\/p>\n Notably, the CDC\u2019s Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria<\/a> was also dissolved in 2025 when President Trump and DOGE dismantled the United States Agency for International Development.<\/a> Because Cyclospora is a parasite, the outbreak is being handled by the CDC\u2019s reportedly inexperienced parasitic division<\/a>, rather than the foodborne and waterborne diseases group.<\/p>\n Renai Edwards, MPH, director of training for Migrant Clinicians Network, is focused on other sources of contamination. For example, sewage or septic system failures can contaminate a field or a processing plant. Because of the size of the outbreak, she hypothesizes that either contaminated irrigation systems or water used in processing will likely be the source of the problem.<\/p>\n She also notes how much reporting, particularly from the CDC, is lagging, because \u201cNo one\u2019s manning the boat.\u201d Or, she adds, \u201cMaybe there\u2019s one person who\u2019s manning 50 boats instead of the one boat they had before.\u201d She concludes, \u201cWe\u2019re just going to see more and more of these things, and bigger than they have ever been in the past, and delays that could have stopped things sooner. It will just make it all worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the dismantling of safety systems through cuts and restructuring from the Trump administration and DOGE, Liebman emphasizes the personal policy changes. She concluded, \u201dI think from a public health perspective, our immigration policies are making it more dangerous\u2014not just for the workers themselves, but for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALINAS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 10, 2023: During a break in the rain farm workers drain lettuce fields of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[9268,16375,28950,3505,14175,8,28133,28951,9,9542,16985,7,3070],"class_list":["post-53309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-administration","tag-centers-for-disease-control","tag-cyclospora-outbreak","tag-doge","tag-food-and-drug-administration","tag-headlines","tag-lettuce","tag-migrant-farm-worker","tag-news","tag-produce","tag-sanitation","tag-top-stories","tag-water"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116931247970096091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}