Taylor Farms, Outbreak-Linked Lettuce Supplier, Spent Millions Backing MAGA Republicans and Rolling Back Food Safety Rules

Public campaign filings confirm the lettuce supplier at the center of the recent widespread cyclospora (often called "turbo diarrhea") outbreak has poured millions of dollars into shaping U.S. food regulation policy and electing Donald Trump and other MAGA-aligned Republican candidates.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Taylor Farms donated more than $2 million to conservative political organizations in 2025 alone. That total includes a $1 million contribution to MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC, and an additional $1.1 million to other GOP-focused super PACs working to elect Republican candidates up and down the ballot. Between 2020 and the end of 2024, the company donated more than $1.6 million to conservative political action committees, including $850,000 total to AFP Action, an anti-regulation super PAC with close ties to the Koch network.

Bruce Taylor, Taylor Farms’ chairman and CEO, has also been a long-time donor to Republican causes. Since 2020, Taylor has personally given more than $900,000 to GOP PACs and individual candidates, including campaign contributions to Texas Senator John Cornyn and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.

| Got a Tip? |

|---|

| If you are a current or former government employee or Taylor Farms staff member with information to share about this case, we want to hear from you. Contact the reporter securely via Signal at khtaylor.24 using a personal, non-work phone or computer. |

Like many large corporate food producers, Taylor Farms has also spent heavily on lobbying related to industry food safety regulation. Per federal disclosure documents, the company hired lobbyists from the global firm Sidley Austin in early 2025 to advocate on its behalf specifically around “regulation of food safety.” Since that hire, Taylor Farms has spent $810,000 on these federal lobbying efforts.

Marion Nestle, a leading U.S. food policy expert, says Taylor Farms’ political spending is part of a systemic problem across the American food industry: multibillion-dollar companies use their vast financial resources to push for policies that weaken food safety regulations and reduce corporate accountability when disease outbreaks occur.

“The FDA already has regulations in place that outline what food producers are supposed to do to keep consumers safe, but no major company wants to comply — because it’s expensive and difficult,” Nestle told WIRED.

In a public post on X, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pushed back against any suggestion of political influence, saying Taylor Farms’ donations did not affect the Trump administration’s response to the current cyclospora outbreak. “This is how the FAKE NEWS works: imply collusion, ignore the facts,” the official HHS account posted Monday. “Nothing influences our decisions except science and the safety of the American people.”

Taylor Farms has openly criticized how the CDC and FDA have handled the ongoing outbreak investigation, which has sickened thousands of people across dozens of U.S. states. The company recently claimed the FDA issued an official apology after announcing a false-positive test result for cyclospora in a sample of Taylor Farms lettuce; FDA representatives later told reporters no such apology ever occurred. (Taylor Farms did not respond to WIRED’s multiple requests for comment on this story.)

Prior to the false-positive controversy, top Taylor Farms executives met with White House and FDA officials to discuss what a company spokesperson called “shortfalls” in the federal agencies’ outbreak response. The New York Times reported the meeting followed Taylor Farms’ hire of Trent Morse, former deputy director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, who left the Trump administration to launch his own government relations firm in September 2024.

This latest outbreak is not the first time Taylor Farms, which generates roughly $7 billion in annual revenue, has drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. In 2013, the FDA named Taylor Farms the source of a cyclospora outbreak that sickened hundreds of people. In 2015, the company voluntarily recalled multiple celery-containing products over potential E. coli contamination. In 2024, the company recalled a batch of yellow onions tied to an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.

After that 2024 outbreak, CBS News reported FDA inspectors found dozens of food safety violations at Taylor Farms’ Colorado facility linked to the Quarter Pounder outbreak, including inadequate handwashing protocols and consistently dirty processing equipment. Since 2025, the FDA has inspected 18 Taylor Farms facilities across the U.S. Three inspections resulted in a “voluntary action indicated” classification, meaning regulators found violations but determined they were not severe enough to require mandatory enforcement action.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also issued citations for at least 21 workplace safety violations at Taylor Farms facilities across the country since the start of 2025. In one particularly severe case, the U.S. Department of Labor fined the company’s New Jersey processing facility $1.1 million for repeated violations. The May 2025 inspection that led to the fine was launched after an employee died from injuries sustained while cleaning an industrial blancher at the site.