The cyclospora outbreak that is believed to have originated in Taylor Farms lettuce sourced from Mexico is prompting a consumer pullback from all manner of leafy greens, and prompting lettuce growers who are well outside of the affected region to plow their lettuce back into their fields. On the consumer side, the reaction has been swift: Foot traffic at Chopt is downs 12 percent in July and Taco Bell is down 21 percent. In supermarkets, unit sales of fresh lettuce was down 8.7 percent year over year in the four-week period ending July 18, a decline roughly commensurate with 7.6 million pounds of lettuce. Interestingly, of 37 vegetable categories tracked by NielsenIQ, 28 saw significant sales declines, an indication that the government response to the specific cyclospora outbreak has been so befuddled that people are simply evading chlorophyll out of an abundance of caution. In reaction to the demand pullback, many farmers in California (not where the outbreak happened) who grow romaine lettuce (not even the affected kind of lettuce!) are chopping up their fields and plowing them back into the soil.
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