Contaminated lettuce, The Dust Bowl, and the price of unethical agriculture

Katie Dusza, Managing Editor

This summer, the United States faced a historic outbreak of the cyclosporasis, a gastrointestinal parasite which causes severe cramps, nausea and diarrhea. More than 8,600 cases were reported and many were traced back to the consumption of iceberg lettuce, produced by Taylor Farms. This outbreak was linked to contaminated irrigation water. Other climate change related events like the hundreds of devastating wildfires across the continent and many places across the country experienced unsafe air quality as a result. 

In the midst of avoiding lettuce with a concern for my health, I fell into a historical rabbit hole which happens routinely because I often don't have anything else to do. This time I fell into the shackles of a Ken Burns Dust Bowl documentary, and caused me to notice parallels between the lettuce contamination and the Dust Bowl. 

The Dust Bowl was a decade of drought and dust storms that affected the great plains of the South-Central United States including parts of Colorado, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and its epicenter, the Oklahoma panhandle. It was a result of non-eco friendly farming tactics and wound up greatly impacting public health. The Dust Bowl was the greatest human–made disaster in American history with its effects on public health and economic devastation that only worsened the tumultuous Great Depression.

According to the Library of Congress, following the Homestead Act of 1862, the formerly unsettled (at least by Americans) Great Plains became home to settlers. Many of which started farms in the arid grasslands. As the demand for wheat increased, millions of acres of farmland were plowed in the Great Plains. By the 1920’s, farmers abandoned soil conservation practices, which eventually contributed to the severe soil erosion that catapulted the devastating event that was the Dust Bowl into motion. Between 1930 and 1940, the Dust Bowl brought severe dust storms across the central United States, which resulted in widespread respiratory illness including “dust pneumonia" which killed hundreds – especially children, infants and the elderly. 

The Dust Bowl ended in the early 1940s following vast government intervention, which involved more eco-friendly farming practices. This was a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Large scale usage of these practices significantly reduced soil loss, and, in turn, restored the region. On the urgent need to protect agricultural land, FDR famously said, “The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”

While the recent cyclosporasis outbreak was not nearly as deadly as the Dust Bowl, it shows how the frequency of human–made public health risks are the result of climate change. A big issue with the outbreak was a lack of trust of the government and their handling of it. This outbreak has highlighted deficiencies in the US safety industry. Funding cuts to the CDC led the parasitic diseases team to lose nine out of 11 staff members, which slowed the tracing of the outbreak at its highest rate in 15 years, according to Forbes. An investigation by PBS found that inspections of foreign food sites by FDA agents has dropped more than 35% since 2019. 

The government intervention that helped end the Dust Bowl was imperative to the restoration of the Great Plains. This is worrisome as climate change is as rampant as ever and public safety measures are actively at risk of being cut. The reduction of public funding, especially when it limits environmental saving measures, poses a great risk to humans whether it be long term or short term.