Fall of the Romaine Empire
Almost daily, I consume a salad that includes a head of lettuce and a couple hothouse cucumbers. One of the by-products of this routine is that I’ve developed Samurai-like skills when it comes to cutting and peeling. Lettuce wilts when it sees me coming. In short, I shred. So I’m not as worried as some by the specifics of this story, but we’ll all feel its broader impact. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Now Is Not the Time to Eat Bagged Lettuce. “Eating romaine lettuce is especially a gamble right now. Although America’s system for tracking and responding to foodborne illnesses has been woefully neglected for decades, it has recently been further undermined. The Biden administration cut funding for food inspections, and the Trump White House’s attempts to ruthlessly thin the federal workforce has made the future of food safety even murkier. The system faces so many stressors, food-safety experts told me, that regulators may miss cases of foodborne illness, giving Americans a false sense of security. If there’s one thing you can do right now to help protect yourself, it’s this: swearing off bagged, prechopped lettuce.”
+ The risks to food safety are only getting greater after the first hundred days of the Trump administration’s de-funding and destabilizing of government watchdogs, including those at the USDA. In some ways, those with access to less safe food will be the lucky ones. Many will have less access to any food. Trump radically remade the US food system in just 100 days. “The agency has … announced the cancellation of environmental protections against logging to ramp up timber production, escalated trade tensions with Mexico, eradicated food safety processes like limiting salmonella levels in raw poultry, and begun rolling back worker protections in meat processing plants.”
+ Meanwhile, Donald Trump tapped a wellness influencer close to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for surgeon general. When asked why he selected Dr. Casey Means for the post, Trump answered, “Because Bobby thought she was fantastic…I don’t know her.” (Lettuce pray…)
