Here’s What a Leading Lettuce Breeder Wants You to Know

Right now we have three fungi, one bacterium, and one virus here in California lettuce that are wreaking havoc and making life very difficult. In the past, there was one major issue at a time that we could hopefully solve in five years of breeding. Now I’m working on five issues, six issues in tandem. 

How has the Cyclospora outbreak, linked to Taylor Farms’ operations in Mexico, affected the lettuce industry?

Oh, it’s disastrous. I’ve heard sales are at least 30% down, and not just in lettuce. Anything that’s green is suspect to some people. If you can’t cook it, or buy it out of a can, it’s not on the list. There are fields of mature lettuces being plowed under constantly now that have no value because they can’t sell. 

But this isn’t the first time. In 2006, there was a big E. coli outbreak with spinach. That started the whole system of trying to evaluate the product before it was cut. Nowadays, at least north of the border, there are companies that go into every field and sample methodically across the field. Maybe every 30th row or every 50th row, they sample and send these samples into a lab, and it’s checked for pathogens.