What a head of lettuce can teach us about trust

Civil Eats recently published an op-ed we think is worth your time: Worried About an Outbreak? Try a Shorter Food Supply Chain, by Judith Redmond, a longtime partner and co-owner of Full Belly Farm — one of the farms we're proud to source from at Rootstock.

It’s especially timely. This summer, a multistate cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico has sickened thousands, with cases reported across 17 states. It's a sobering reminder of how quickly risk can spread through an industrial food system.

In large processing facilities, lettuce from many fields is chopped, mixed, washed, packaged, and shipped across the country. If contamination enters that system, it can travel a long way before anyone knows where it started.

Buying local doesn’t eliminate food-safety risk, but it offers a shorter, more transparent chain, and limits the reach when something goes wrong.

Consider Full Belly Farm. Produce is harvested, brought to the packing shed, washed in well water, cooled, and loaded onto a truck, often all within a day. Their farmers' market sign reads "We Grow What We Sell." It's more than a slogan: one farm, one team, clear accountability from seed to sale.

Fifth Crow Farm in Pescadero is another partner we’re proud to support. We offer theirits organic spinach every week, alongside rotating arugula, baby kale, and spring mix. With spinach and kale topping the 2026 Dirty Dozen, choosing organic can feel especially worthwhile. Prewashed and exceptionally flavorful, the spinach is a customer favorite.

Just miles from the coast, Fifth Crow combines careful water use and watershed stewardship with a short, traceable path from field to bag. A small team tends the fields and stands behind every step—exactly the connection that can disappear in sprawling, commingled supply chains.

Shorter supply chains offer more than traceability. They give farmers the freedom to grow delicate varieties, harvest closer to ripeness, and prioritize flavor and nutrition over the uniformity, durability, and shelf life that long-distance distribution demands.

That's why Rootstock exists: to connect people with farmers and food grown for flavor, nourishment, healthy soil, and care for the land. And for the joy of eating it at its best.

Recent reporting from Food Fix found that 40 percent of Americans say they're buying and eating less produce because of the outbreak. That may be the most troubling consequence of all. The answer isn't to fear fruits and vegetables. It's to ask better questions, choose whole, minimally handled produce when we can, and support more transparent, accountable ways of getting food from farms to people.

For those in our delivery area, we're grateful to bring food from farms like Full Belly closer to home. Wherever you live, we hope you'll seek out the farmers, markets, CSAs, and independent food businesses building shorter, more human supply chains in your community.

Judith offers a farmer’s firsthand perspective on why shorter supply chains matter. Read her piece in Civil Eats →

Want to dig deeper?

• CDC: Current cyclospora outbreak investigation — the best link for readers who want current case numbers, recall information, and health guidance.
  
• Food Fix: Most Americans lack confidence in food-safety oversight — useful for the consumer-trust angle, including its reporting that 40 percent of Americans say they are eating less produce because of the outbreak. The specific article is listed among its recent editions, though some Food Fix content may require a subscription.
  
• 9 Vulnerable Moments in the Life of a Bagged Salad — an interactive guide that follows the journey of bagged greens from farm to table and illustrates how contamination can happen across the steps