Taco Bell Sold You 'Fresh.' It Sold You Cyclospora.

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-09

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: Taco Bell Sold You 'Fresh.' It Sold You Cyclospora.

A thousand people in Michigan, a 'value menu,' and a parasite. The corporation posted a sign. The corporation did not call.

I did what they told me. I worked the closing shift. I had eleven dollars and two kids and a fifteen-minute window before the sitter bailed. I drove through Taco Bell because the sign said LIVE MÁS and the drive-thru doesn’t ask questions.

Now I’m writing this from the goddamn bathroom because cyclospora doesn’t give a shit about the value menu.

Almost a thousand people in Michigan have caught this parasite since June 22. Michigan usually gets about fifty. Taco Bell is yanking lettuce, pico, guac, cilantro, and onion off the menu in some locations because the company’s “fresh” supply chain apparently let a parasite crawl from some field straight into the kid’s burrito bowl. The company put up a sign. The company did not, as far as I can see, call anybody to say hey, you might want to see a doctor, sorry about the explosive diarrhea, our bad.

They said: fresh, fast, affordable, live más. What happened: cyclospora. A thousand people in one state. A month of bowel hell. Spikes in Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Texas, Illinois. Who paid: the working people who eat at Taco Bell because the kitchen’s empty and the kid is hungry. Who got covered: Taco Bell’s marketing department.

The CDC says wash your produce. The CDC is right. The CDC is also asking the wrong family to do the job a multinational corporation’s supply chain audit was supposed to do. You are not supposed to wash your way out of a cyclospora outbreak that hit a thousand people in three weeks.

The value on the value menu is for them. The cost is for you. The cost is the day of work you miss on the toilet. The copay. The kid eating a bean burrito because mom is praying to the god of porcelain. The drive-thru crew handling contaminated produce with their bare damn hands because corporate won’t pay for gloves or paid sick leave.

Yum! Brands pulled the menu items. Yum! Brands did not announce a fund for the workers who got sick. Did not announce paid sick leave for the crew. Posted a sign. The sign says OUT OF STOCK. The sign does not say we are sorry we poisoned your fucking family.

Family values, my ass. A value you refuse to fund when somebody’s guts are paying for it is a slogan in a red paper hat.

Eat shit, Taco Bell corporate. You sold the family on “fresh” and delivered a parasite. The kid with the explosive diarrhea is not a value menu item.

Source story: the source story.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-09
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: epidemic and pandemic, public health, disease and condition, consumer goods
Storylines: public-health
Primary entities: Taco Bell, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, United States Food and Drug Administration
Themes: Food safety, Public health
Floor values engaged: human_life_and_dignity, Informed citizenship, Truthfulness