As fear grows around the rise of cyclosporiasis cases in the United States, Quebec farmers are feeling the hit.
Demand for lettuce is dropping, leaving farmers with a surplus of product.
“Currently the lettuce that is being sold to our grocery stores and to our retailers is under the price of production, which means that when the grower is selling their lettuce, they’ve lost money,” Catherine Lessard, deputy manager of the Quebec Produce Growers’ Association, told Global News.
Approximately half of lettuce grown in Quebec is exported to the U.S, but stock is not being purchased.
“Americans stopped buying lettuce because, well, they were afraid,” Lessard said.
Some retailers have even stopped putting lettuce on their shelves.
“So all this lettuce, half of the production is staying here, has no market,” Lessard said.
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Some farmers are operating at a loss, selling their product for cheaper, but Lessard said there are fears that some fields will not be harvested.
“Lettuce has to be harvested by hand. So it’s very expensive. It’s about half of the cost of production of lettuce,” she said.
Fears surrounding lettuce began to rise when American authorities linked multiple outbreaks of cyclosporiasis to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms Mexico.
More than 11,000 people in 15 states have fallen ill and two deaths have been connected to the outbreak.
An investigation is underway to determine the root cause, but in the past, contaminated irrigation water has been to blame.
But experts say Canadian-grown produce is safe to eat.
“If it’s grown in Canada, it’s safe and I hope you will eat it,” Lessard said.
Canada also has strict food safety measures to prevent contaminated produce from hitting grocery store shelves.
“Canada is one of the only countries who actually test for cyclospora contamination in the imported fresh products,” Nathalie Grandvaux, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Montreal, told Global News.
She said while cases of cyclosporiasis have increased in Quebec this year, an outbreak like the one seen in the U.S. is nearly impossible.
“Most of them have been linked to people coming back from travelling. So that suggests that the contamination is broad,” Grandvaux said.
There are currently no cyclospora outbreaks being investigated in Canada.
Lessard said many farmers have other crops they can rely on so the true financial toll is not yet known.
“It’s really hard to say what will be the end effect for our growers, we’ll have to see at the end of the season,” she said.
Looks like people in the comments still don’t understand that grocery stores purchase crops from farmers at low prices while marking up retail costs for consumers.
All of the Canadian Agencies are saying there are no cases in Canada….but I have experienced explosive diarrhea on and off for more than a month. And I did eat from a prepackaged salad kit made by Taylor products.
I have submitted a test, (stoolsample), and am waiting for the results.
My symptoms are exactly as thise described in the Cyclospora outbreak that is happening in the US.
I wonder why Canadian agencies are do adamant that there are NO cases here.
Better to be safe than crapping your brains out for a month
Support the home market with affordable greens. If you can sell it cheap to the US, you can do it here.
More people have died from consuming Romaine lettuce than consuming Cannabis.
“Risk of death due to cannabis toxicity is negligible.” (National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths)
funny how none of that is witnessed at the grocer level.
Well, if you charge $6.99 for a friggin head of Romaine, any wonder we’re not buying? Drop the price to a reasonable level and we’ll be eating salads again.
Stop charging $4-5 for a head of lettuce that spoils in 4 days. Maybe Canadians would be more open to any lettuce.
Western farmers are facing record low prices with record high input costs. Ottawa will give them another tax in September.
Watch the feds swoop in and pay these Quebec farmers twice what their crop is worth and have them harvest it too.
Quebecers can find a way to make reduced supply also reduce demand…as long as their is government money on the table to grift.
Here comes the bail out
Sounds like Trump.
We’re losing money, but we’ll wait and see at the end of season.
Here’s a novel idea, drop the price you greedy farmers and everyone will buy it like before.
You would think these farms would be selling lettuce to businesses that want to replace the bad produce with good stuff..
Mighty fine looking lettuce, didn’t even know they grew lettuce there… I would sure buy it