California Lettuce Growers Skip Harvest, Plow Their Crops Back Into the Ground
- Serena Valentino
- Aug 2
- 4 min read
By Amira McKee Updated July 31, 2026 8:17 pm ET
Federal health authorities haven’t linked U.S. produce to cyclospora, but some consumers are still steering clear
In the verdant fields of California’s Salinas Valley, Larry Cox is watching his lettuce wilt.
Cox and his two sons run Coastline Family Farms, which supplies leafy greens to some of the country’s biggest restaurant chains and grocery stores. But this week, in the region known as America’s Salad Bowl, around 300,000 pounds of his romaine hearts were chopped and plowed back into the soil.
There is no evidence that his, or any of the nation’s homegrown lettuce, was infected with the parasite behind an illness outbreak that has sickened thousands of people so far. Even so, that hasn’t stopped Cox’s dependable restaurant and grocery customers from cutting back on orders.
Many growers are destroying the crops they can’t find buyers for. Since lettuce has about a 30-day growing cycle, farmers that are plowing their crops back into the ground are weighing whether to replant or dial back.
“It is incredibly demoralizing,” Cox said. “I would’ve been better off taking a vacation in the South of France than planting the crop.”
Outbreaks of cyclospora are rocking every corner of the produce industry as many consumers avoid supermarkets’ fresh produce aisles and cut back on visits to some salad-heavy chains. Weeks of growing case numbers, with no definitive cause, have spawned confusion among consumers about what’s safe to eat.
“Consumers aren’t sure what’s right anymore so, out of an abundance of caution, they’re just passing on everything,” said Joelle Mosso, who leads science and food safety programming at Western Growers, a family farm trade group. She said many growers in California are also plowing their crops back into the ground.
While some Americans might eschew leafy greens altogether, others are swarming farmers markets to find locally grown options. FreshFarm, which runs dozens of farmers markets in the Washington, D.C., area, has seen a 30% increase in foot traffic since early July, according to Cat Oakar, the group’s executive director.
In the U.S., unit sales of fresh lettuce slipped 8.7% for the four weeks that ended July 18 when compared with the prior year period, according to data from NielsenIQ. That’s a difference of more than 7.6 million pounds of lettuce.
Other corners of the produce aisle are suffering, too. Of 37 vegetable categories NielsenIQ tracked, 28 showed sales declines over the same period, including carrots, cauliflower, spinach and Brussels sprouts. Salad dressing sales were also down.
“We’re seeing a fundamental effect on the entire fresh produce aisle,” said Max Teplitski, chief science officer for the International Fresh Produce Association.
While demand usually recovers within months of a typical food-safety scare, high-profile outbreaks have more far-reaching consequences, Teplitski said. He noted, for instance, the E. coli outbreak in spinach in 2006 dampened sales for years.
Several restaurant chains have clocked big sales drops.
Foot traffic at Chopt slid more than 12% in late July when compared with the daily average for much of this year, while Taco Bell’s traffic was down 21%, according to data from Placer.ai. Other restaurant chains that saw significant foot traffic declines following the outbreak are still seeing fewer customers, but the worst may be behind them, Placer.ai’s report said.
After federal authorities linked one outbreak to lettuce served at Taco Bell, its U.S. sales slumped 25% for the week that ended July 25, according to data firm Consumer Edge, which analyzes credit-card and debit-card transaction activity. That’s comparable to the sales hit seen when Covid-19 broke out in 2020, the firm said.
To lure customers back, Taco Bell introduced $1 menu items, including a lettuce-free Mexican pizza.
Even greenhouse growers, whose controlled environments offer some protection from foodborne illness risks, say the summer’s outbreak has hurt their demand.
Viraj Puri, founder and chairman of Gotham Greens, based in Brooklyn, said the company weighed reducing future plantings in its greenhouse farms after a decline in sales but ultimately opted not to reduce seeding.
“The public health benefits of a diet grounded in fruits and vegetables are indisputable,” Puri said. “I really hope consumers can get back to trusting the fruits and vegetables they buy in stores, because they generally are safe.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked one cyclospora outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced in Central Mexico by Taylor Farms, the country’s largest supplier of salad greens. Domestic-grown lettuce, which accounts for most of the country’s supply, hasn’t been implicated by federal authorities. But that hasn’t done much to reassure some shoppers.
In Salinas Valley, a hub for American produce, farms and farmworkers are already feeling the pullback. Cox said sales of his Coastline produce are down 20% to 30% as a result of cutbacks on orders from restaurants and grocers. Dependable harvest jobs for farmworkers have been axed, as some growers can’t afford the expense of picking and storing crops they might not be able to sell.
Cox said his crews continue preparing the next fields for harvest, even as mature lettuce is plowed under just down the road.
“You can’t afford to be downcast very long,” Cox said. “You better pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep pushing forward.”
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Amira McKee is a news associate at The Wall Street Journal. Before joining the Journal, Amira interned with Politico's New York bureau, where she covered New York City Hall and the 2025 mayoral race. She also has interned with NBC's investigations unit and was a 2024 ProPublica Emerging Reporter.
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