• This past July, Taylor Farms de Mexico was linked to the iceberg lettuce believed to be responsible for one of the largest cyclosporiasis outbreaks in American history with at least 15,000 confirmed cases. After Taco Bell had announced that they were voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, Taylor Farms soon followed with a recall of their own.

Although it may sound like a mom and pop operation, Taylor Farms is the largest global producer of salads and fresh foods, with production facilities across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Western Europe, and they have a long history of food recalls. In 2012 and 2013, Taylor Farms recalled products six times, including a recall of organic baby spinach that caused e coli outbreaks in 39 states. Previously they had recalled romaine lettuce, broccoli, salad kits and packets of salad dressing for listeria contamination and hundreds of cases of cyclosporiasis were linked to their salad mix served at Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

• At a press conference on July 21, health officials in North Carolina announced a surge in illnesses caused by the parasite cyclospora that sickened 561 people, nearly double the number of cases it recorded in all of 2025. The cause was eventually determined to be tainted parsley and cilantro that probably came from the same area of Mexico that the tainted lettuce came from.

• After Jalapeño peppers were linked to a large, multi-state outbreak of salmonella, Taylor Fresh Farms recalled multiple salsas, dips and guacamole. Some specific products included Diced Jalapenos, Rice and Bean Burrito, Spicy Roast Beef Sandwich. Spicy Pimento Cheese Dip, Pico de Gallo Salsa, Spicy Guacamole, Fiesta Style Salad Shrimp, Salsa Fresca, Pineapple Mango Salsa, etc., which were sold at retailers across 26 states and included Trader Joes, Kroger, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods and many others. Federal investigators later said that the Mexico based supplier Coast Citrus Distributors may have been responsible for the peppers. Chipotle was among the first to pull the Jalapeño peppers from their menu and several other restaurants soon followed. But the damage had been done as at least 345 people across 27 states fell ill in the salmonella outbreak, according to the FDA. Every year, salmonella averages 1.35 million illnesses and 420 deaths in the U.S.

• A shipment of nearly 30,000 pounds of beef from Argentina was recalled after the USDA found that it had bypassed a required import reinspection. The USDA categorized the recall as Class I, indicating a “high or medium risk.” The shipment of 29,628 pounds of raw beef was not presented to USDA inspectors for a mandatory reinspection before it was sent to distributors and retail outlets in Florida and Texas. The American rancher became the fall guy by default because Congress won’t make country of origin labeling mandatory for beef so the American consumer has no way of differentiating Argentinian beef from American beef.

Did you notice a recurring theme to all the above cases? That’s right, they all involved foreign food.

Thomas Friedman didn’t take the possibility of international food poisoning into effect when he extolled globalism in his 2005 bestselling book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. The book got its name because Friedman said the world was now a level playing field where production of everything would automatically go to the least-cost producer. Although the book won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005, Friedman’s theory has now turned into a nightmare where America sacrificed it manufacturing industry and farmed out the production to foreign producers of 60 percent of fresh fruit, 35 percent of fresh vegetables and 10 to 15 percent of our beef.

Instead of being called the World is Flat, Friedman should have called his book The World is Stupid. How did Americans ever fall for this idea that benefitted BIG BUSINESS but hurt not only Taco Bell and Chipotle but American farmers too because now my wife (and millions of others) won’t eat their beloved jalapeños or dine at their favorite Mexican restaurant until this dark cloud has passed. And she hasn’t touched a salad in months.