It\u2019s been more than a month since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked Taylor Farms to the deadly cyclospora outbreak, and yet the agency is only just now sending investigators to visit the produce grower\u2019s facilities. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigators with the FDA finally arrived at Taylor Farms\u2019s operation in Mexico to inspect facilities linked to the parasite that can cause explosive bowel movements, four U.S. officials told The Washington Post Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donald Prater, the FDA\u2019s acting deputy commissioner for food, said that there was extensive research\u00a0required before the agency could launch an investigation\u00a0into the growing conditions.<\/p>\n
But food safety experts and some former top FDA officials criticized the agency for waiting so long after publicly linking the company\u2019s shredded lettuce to a national outbreak that has sickened more than 13,000 people\u00a0and caused two deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barbara Kowalcyk, director of George Washington University\u2019s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security, told the Post that in-person work at the facility was necessary for prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, as soon as [the FDA] traced it back to the source, they would be out there working with the facility and specifically working with Taylor Farms to do a root-cause analysis so that we can understand what happened,\u201d Kowalcyk said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what\u2019s going to drive prevention going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
On July 17, the FDA notified Taylor Farms that its shredded iceberg lettuce had tested positive for cyclospora. Taylor Farms falsely claimed that the FDA had later walked back its determination, but still promptly recalled all of the shredded iceberg lettuce that was grown and processed in central Mexico out of an \u201cabundance of caution.\u201d A sanitation inspection conducted by Mexican officials between July 18 and July 20 tested negative for cyclospora. The company\u2019s website claims that its own testing of roughly 2,000 samples also tested negative for the parasite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taylor Farms is the country\u2019s largest supplier of fresh produce, and is also pro-Donald Trump. The company sells products to Walmart, Sam\u2019s Club, Kroger, SYSCO, Aldi, Target, and Dollar General.<\/p>\n
Before any of this, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly cut back on parasite monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Trump has hit the highest national disapproval rating on gas prices in recorded history, as 79 percent of Americans\u2014and a whopping 52 percent of Republicans\u2014feel negatively about how he\u2019s handled skyrocketing gas prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo president has been hated more when it comes to gas prices,\u201d CNN\u2019s Harry Enten said during a Friday segment. \u201c79 percent … that is the highest disapproval rating for any president on record.\u201d\u00a0 Former Presidents George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, who each had their own struggles with gas prices, never eclipsed a 75 percent disapproval rating on the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Enten: "Even a majority of Republicans — 52% — that loyal Republican base who has been through thick and thin with Donald John Trump, even they have turned against the president on gas prices … these are just atrocious numbers" pic.twitter.com\/hc5xJfrA6O<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump takes the cake as these $4-plus gas prices continue to give us pain at the pump. The American people are taking their anger out on the President of the United States,\u201d Enten said.<\/p>\n
The poll\u2019s party line breakdown is even more devastating, as 52 percent of Republicans disapproving may put Trump-backed candidates at risk in their November elections as they have to answer for his decisions\u2014especially in swing states. 96 percent of Democrats disapproved, along with 85 percent of independents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These are startling numbers that Trump can\u2019t convincingly blame on decisions Biden made three years ago. Gas prices are high\u2014and will continue to be high\u2014because Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started bombing Iran and Lebanon, and Iran closed the crucial Strait of Hormuz in response. That\u2019s why your gas is $4 for the third time this year\u2014something else that has never happened before.<\/p>\n