{"id":822828,"date":"2026-07-24T10:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822828\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:16:12","slug":"taylor-farms-donated-to-trump-as-he-delayed-food-safety-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822828\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Farms Donated to Trump As He Delayed Food Safety Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A Taylor Farms facility in Salinas, California on July 17, 2026. Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n

Taylor Farms \u2013 the produce giant whose lettuce has been recalled in connection with the \u201cexplosive diarrhea\u201d outbreak sweeping the United States \u2013 and its lobbying groups have for years worked to end or delay programs meant to help the government better test for foodborne diseases and prevent their spread, according to records reviewed by Zeteo.<\/p>\n

Over a decade ago, Taylor Farms and big agricultural industry groups successfully<\/a> lobbied<\/a> to defund<\/a> a significant foodborne illness testing program that was responsible for some 80% of U.S. public produce pathogen testing.<\/p>\n

More recently, under Donald Trump\u2019s second administration, a lobbying group that Taylor Farms belongs to successfully pushed<\/a> to delay a rule that would have helped the government more quickly trace contaminations back to specific locations \u2013 which could have helped prevent the illness at hand, cyclosporiasis, from proliferating into thousands of cases nationwide. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration moved<\/a> to delay the tracing rule last year. Several days later, Taylor Farms donated<\/a> $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. That summer, Taylor Farms contributed<\/a> another $1 million to House Republicans\u2019 super PAC, and a few months later, Republicans in Congress enshrined<\/a> the rule delay as part of a funding bill.<\/p>\n

Separately, legal complaints<\/a> and employee accounts<\/a> suggest that Taylor Farms\u2019s facilities have been host to unsanitary workplace conditions, with staff working long hours and receiving sparse breaks \u2013 conditions that experts say could foster the spread of foodborne illnesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Taylor Farms facility in Salinas, California on July 17, 2026. Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy\/Getty Images. Taylor Farms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-822828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}