US Democrats aim to link parasite spread to Trump-grower ties

WASHINGTON – US senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing the US’s top health official to detail the government’s cyclospora outbreak response in the wake of a major produce supplier’s campaign contributions to political groups tied to President Donald Trump.

On Aug 13, the Massachusetts Democrat sent US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr a letter highlighting the connections between the Trump administration, cuts to foodborne illness surveillance and the parent company of Taylor Farms, the produce giant implicated in the outbreak.

Warren said the influence of the company on the administration may have played a role on the response.

“The federal government’s communications regarding the outbreak, including information about its cause, have been confusing, inconsistent, and incomplete,” Warren wrote in the letter viewed by Bloomberg News.

The senator is requesting that Kennedy answer questions by Aug 27 on protocols for testing for false positives and to provide communications between health agencies and Taylor Farms.

An HHS spokesperson said once the “FDA had a high degree of confidence that the outbreak was linked to Taylor Farms products, the agency engaged directly with the company and presented evidence supporting the need for public health action.”

“Political contributions or relationships have no bearing on FDA or CDC outbreak investigations, which are driven by scientific evidence and public health considerations,” the spokesperson added, referring to the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A Taylor Foods spokesperson said that “we categorically reject suggestions that we attempted to receive or received favourable regulatory treatment due to political contributions or other improper influence. Any such allegations are false.”

The spokesperson added that the company supports federal efforts to trace food and has already implemented trace-back protocols.

Warren charges

The Warren letter comes as other Democrats have also demanded answers about the origin of the parasite outbreak that has sickened thousands across 47 states.

Federal health authorities are investigating multiple outbreaks, but the largest has been tied to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms that was served at some Taco Bell locations.

Taylor Farms recalled products, including bagged salads sent to some Walmart Inc. stores.

Warren said political contributions from Taylor Farms’ parent company to the Trump administration appear to be timed closely to regulatory actions that were favourable to the company, including delaying the FDA’s food traceability rule in 2025.

The company donated US$1 million (S$1.28 million) to MAGA Inc – a political action committee tied to Trump – less than a week after the rollback, the letter said.

Weeks after the company made another donation to another Trump-aligned political action committee, the CDC scaled down its FoodNet tracking for cyclospora – a surveillance system that captures laboratory tests for some diseases for about 16 per cent of the population.

Funding cuts have also led the Trump administration to begin to close a research centre that investigates cyclospora cases and to scale down the CDC’s parasite investigation team, which inhibits the government’s ability to respond quickly, Warren said.

“The Trump administration’s systematic dismantling of the food safety system has hampered the federal government’s ability to prevent, identify, and respond to the latest outbreak,” Warren wrote in the letter.

Warren isn’t the only Democratic lawmaker to probe the produce firm’s role in the outbreak.

In July, representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Taylor Fresh Foods Inc chief executive Bruce Taylor that questioned Taylor’s connections to the White House – including political donations made to political action committees tied to Trump and other Republicans in 2025.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also sent a letter in July requesting more information on the links between Taylor Farms and the Trump administration.

And Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, the state hardest hit by the cyclosporiasis outbreak, has taken to social media to question the link between Taylor Farms and the Trump administration.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that can cause severe diarrhoea for up to two months after ingesting food contaminated with human faeces.

Two people with underlying health conditions died in Michigan – the epicentre of the largest outbreak.

The state has said infections are starting to fall and people can resume eating leafy greens.

On Aug 13, Michigan recorded 13,909 infections since the outbreak began.

Taylor Farms recently issued a separate recall for more than a dozen prepared food items containing jalapenos over salmonella concerns earlier this week. BLOOMBERG