Lettuce supplier Public records show that at the center of the turbo diarrhea outbreak, she spent millions of dollars to change sentiment around food regulations and elect Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans.
Federal Election Commission records show that Taylor Farms donated more than $2 million to conservative political groups in 2025. That includes a $1 million donation to MAGA Inc., a Trump-focused super PAC, and $1.1 million to other super PACs focused on electing Republicans.
From 2020 through the end of 2024, the company contributed more than $1.6 million to conservative PACs, including a total of $850,000 to AFP Action, an anti-regulatory super PAC with is associated with Koch network.
Bruce Taylor, president and CEO of Taylor Farms, is also a longtime donor to Republican causes. Since 2020, Taylor has personally contributed more than $900,000 to Republican PACs and candidates, including contributions to Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Like many corporate giants, Taylor Farms has also spent heavily on lobbying related to industry regulations. According to leaked documents, in early 2025 it hired lobbyists from Sidley Austin to advocate for “food safety regulations” on the company’s behalf. Since then, the company has spent $810,000 on lobbying efforts.
Marion Nestle, a food policy expert, said Taylor Farms’ donations are part of a broader problem in the U.S. food industry: Multibillion-dollar companies are using their financial resources to push for policies that would limit food safety regulations and liability in the event of an outbreak.
“The FDA has regulations on what food manufacturers should do, but no one wants to do it because it is expensive and difficult,” Nestle told WIRED.
In a post on X, the US Department of Health and Human Services emphasized that political donations made by Taylor Farms had no impact on the Trump administration’s response to the cyclospora epidemic.
“This is how FAKE NEWS works: they suggest collusion, ignore the facts” – HHS report sent on Monday. “Nothing influences our decisions except science and the safety of the American people.”
Taylor Farms has apparently expressed disagreement with the way the CDC and FDA have investigated the current cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people in multiple states. The company recently said the FDA “apologized” after announcing a false positive test result on a Taylor Farms lettuce sample; The FDA told reporters that no official apology was ever actually made. (The company did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.)
Before the false positive and lack of apology, Taylor Farms executives met with the White House and FDA officials to discuss what a company spokesman called “shortcomings” in the government agencies’ response. This was reported by The New York Times. that the meeting came after Taylor Farms’ recent hiring of Trent Morse, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel who left the Trump administration to start a government relations firm in September.
The recent diarrhea debacle is not the first time Taylor Farms, which brings in about $7 billion in annual revenue, has attracted the attention of federal regulators.
In 2013 FDA named Taylor Farms as the source of a cyclospora outbreak that sickened hundreds of people. In 2015 the company voluntarily recalled many products containing celery because it may have been contaminated with it E. coli. AND in 2024, the company has recalled some yellow onions in frames E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. In the aftermath of the explosion CBS News reported that FDA inspectors found dozens of violations at the Colorado Taylor Farms plant related to the Quarter Pounder outbreak, including minimal handwashing and soiled equipment.
Since 2025, the FDA has inspected 18 U.S. facilities affiliated with Taylor Farms. In three cases, “voluntary action was indicated”, meaning that although violations were detected, they were not earnest enough to warrant mandatory enforcement.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said there have been at least 21 violations at Taylor Farms facilities across the U.S. since the beginning of 2025. In one particularly gruesome case, the Department of Labor fined the New Jersey facility $1.1 million due to violations. The May 2025 inspection occurred after a worker died from injuries while cleaning an industrial blancher at the plant.