The chalk sign that was outside Fresh Off the Farm in Rockport the other week said it all, perhaps a bit crassly: “Poop Free Lettuce!”
Salad has been decidedly off the menu for many this summer after a cyclospora outbreak sickened people in 41 states across the country. The parasite, which is most often transmitted by fecal matter, has now been traced back to iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico by Taylor Farms distributed to nine states, including to Taco Bell locations. While there have been two cyclospora cases in Maine this year, neither is connected to two nationwide outbreaks. But having a widespread foodborne illness functions like an existential threat, too: According to a CBS News poll, 40% of people have changed their diet as a result of the outbreak.
In the midcoast, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean not eating lettuce at all. Locally grown lettuce is as safe as ever, and it seems that more people are realizing that this growing season.
“We’re seeing sales that are 45% and 40% higher, respectively, over the past four weeks compared with the same period last year,” said Peter Alsop, who owns Tenderwild Farm in Rockport. “I’d like to think that’s because we grow exceptionally good lettuce (and I think we do!), but it’s certainly possible that concerns about cyclospora are leading people to seek out local greens.” Tenderwild sells most of the some 200 pounds of salad greens harvested every week at the Camden Farmers’ Market, as well as a few retailers — French and Brawn and Good Tern Co-op in Rockland — and local restaurants, too. At Fresh Off the Farm, owner Melanie Daigle said produce sales are up across the board this summer, and she’s sure the outbreak is part of the reason why.
During the summertime, when local greens are readily available, the Belfast Community Co-op doesn’t sell any lettuce that’s grown more than 20 miles away. As such, there hasn’t been any additional food safety risk in the produce department this year. But the co-op’s assistant produce manager, Cassandra (who didn’t want her last name used), said the store has seen a slight decline in sales. “People are just worried; they want to make sure that they don’t get sick from the food that they eat. And with lettuce being the primary thing, everyone is a little shy of it,” she said.
Even with that slight dip in sales, Cassandra said it’s still a pretty normal season. That’s been true, too, for Prentice Grassi, who co-owns Freedom’s Villageside Farm with Polly Shyka. Grassi and Shyka grow solely for wholesale customers, including the Belfast Community Co-op, so while they don’t hear directly from the people who buy and eat their greens all that much, the outbreak has still been on Grassi’s mind this summer.
“It’s mostly been my own thoughts as I’ve been following the coverage in the media,” he said, “sort of, how does this impact our customers’ impressions of the products that we produce?” But as the situation has become clearer, and the outbreak seemingly tied to farms in Mexico, he’s been less concerned that people living on the midcoast will be avoiding local greens. “Once it comes out that it’s farms in Mexico, and once it comes out that it’s Taco Bell, I think a lot of customers that would be buying our products are probably thinking, ‘Oh well, that’s a very different thing,’” he said. “I think most consumers kind of understand.”
There are plenty of people on the midcoast who don’t think of going to the store for lettuce in the summer at all, because they’re growing it in their own gardens. Mari Jones and Robert Wolterstorff, executive director at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, grow plenty of lettuce and much more at their community garden plot at Erickson Field in Rockport. But asked at the garden the other day whether the cyclospora outbreak has made having a trove of local lettuce feel any different, Wolterstorff said, “I haven’t even thought of it.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.