They Bought the Rule. You Ate the Salad.

By Barb McGowan · 2026-08-16

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: They Bought the Rule. You Ate the Salad.

Industry lobbyists paid for a fifteen-year delay to the FDA traceability rule while 24,000 people got a parasite and two of them died.

I did everything they told us to do. I bought the bagged salad because the coupon was good and the kids were hungry. Twenty-four thousand people did the same goddamn thing and got a parasite for it. Two of them died. A lot of those kids look like my friends’ kids.

The rule that was supposed to let the FDA trace the sick food back to the farm has been delayed fifteen years. Fifteen. Congress asked for it in 2010. Industry said “complicated.” Industry said “operational realities.” Industry said “give us more time.” So the FDA gave them thirty more months. Then Congress — fresh out of a 43-day shutdown where they couldn’t agree on shit — buried the next delay in the budget bill like a turd in a Christmas stocking.

Know who lobbied for it? The Food Industry Association. The National Retail Federation. Walmart, Target, Albertson’s, Publix. McDonald’s, Chipotle, Kellogg, Kwik Trip. The National goddamn Restaurant Association. They sat in a fancy Reagan-Udall roundtable in 2024 and told the FDA-adjacent foundation that traceability might “require significant increases in labor, equipment, and space.” Translation: tracking which field of lettuce made 24,000 people puke their guts out would cost them a few bucks, and they would rather the people puke.

A House Republican from Florida even introduced a bill to relax the damned requirements. The NRF bragged about it in their lobbying disclosure. They didn’t even have to hide. They just bought the rule and ate it.

Bill Marler, the food safety lawyer who represents 400 of the sickened people, called the industry suit-wearing men “acting like 2-year-olds.” He’s being polite. They are acting like men who know their lettuce is poisoning kids and figure the campaign checks are worth more than the dead.

Eleven consumer and labor groups wrote Congress this month asking them to unscrew the delay. Congress will not unscrew the delay. Congress got their budget passed. The babies in the Taco Bell lettuce can wait.

Take the flag pin off before you let 24,000 people shit their insides out for your lobbyists, you corporate fucking ghouls. Eat shit. You knew exactly what you were doing.

Source story: FDA traceability rule delayed until 2028 as cyclosporiasis outbreak spreads.

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: 2026-08-16
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: health treatment and procedure, public health, epidemic and pandemic, health, disease and condition
Primary entities: Food and Drug Administration, National Retail Federation, Food Industry Association, Publix Super Markets, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Bill Marler
Themes: food safety regulation, foodborne illness outbreak, FDA enforcement, industry lobbying, congressional appropriations
Floor values engaged: human_life_and_dignity, Accountability of power, Truthfulness