YSK: Taylor Farms Iceberg Lettuce is sold under many different names

[u/hardasjello]

Why YSK, Taylor Farms sells their iceberg lettuce to many food stores using different names and you don’t need explosive diarrhea.

Here are some of the different names and stores that sell Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce

Earthbound - Taylor Farms

365 - Whole Foods

Simple Truth - Kroger/Fred Meyer

O-Organics and Signature Select brands - Safeway/Carrs

Greenwise - Publix

Simply Nature - Aldi

Marketside - Walmart

Good and Gather - Target

H.E.B Store brand

Trader Joe’s store brand

[u/Lawgirl77]

Man, some local farmer’s stands here have, allegedly, been caught buying grocery store produce and re-selling it at the stand as “local” produce.

[u/Vacuum_Burrito → u/Lawgirl77]

That is my concern. Farmers markets are getting ruined with this capitalist shit 

[u/stevethewatcher → u/Vacuum_Burrito]

This is nothing to do with capitalism, just your average human greed

[u/Omnom_Omnath → u/Lawgirl77]

I'd drop the 'allegedly' this is a well known phenomenon

[u/YouStoleTheKishka → u/Lawgirl77]

🙋‍♂️ hi, so I help run one of these larger summer farm stands with some friends. And you should know that pretty much every farm stand operates this way. 

The thing is, if you go to any farm stand that has any reasonable amount of stock and variety, and seemingly has that availability for weeks, they’re buying it from wholesalers and it’s not always “local”. Think about how short a growing season in your local area is. If I’m selling peaches, I’d have maybe two month window to sell peaches if I only bought them within 100 miles. And that’s IF the crop yield is good. If I sell wholesale from Georgia to New York, that opens up a much wider sale window. The game is chasing the produce growing season as it moves north and establishing good relationships with wholesalers.

If a farm is large enough that its farm stand supply was bountiful, then they’d go sell wholesale. If you think a small farm typically always abide by stringent hygiene, pesticide, and organic practices, bad news for you. Farming is expensive, requires high capital, and low margin. You can’t survive on your own small growing season being the manufacturer, distributor, and seller. I grew up in competitive dairy farming. Very small family farms would make my stomach turn 90% of the time. 

We source about 30% local, 30% regional wholesale and 40% major wholesale (think your large produce terminals, same as every major store is buying from). Hell, we’ll buy in bulk from the produce grocery down the street and resell it at a small markup. 

We re-package Driscolls into blue bins and mark them up. And people buy it, fully seeing us repackage it. We sell the same local blueberries you’ll find in your local ShopRite.

And EVERY stand in the area does this? How do we know? Cause all the farm families are all friends (or cousin-brothers).

The guy at your local farmers market? He’s the son of the guy who runs the farm stand at the other farmers market. They share trucks and ride overnight to the Wholesale Terminal. Oh yeah, and then any leftover stock they sell off to their cousin who runs that box truck in the city and sells produce out the back on Thursdays.

🤷‍♂️ I never lie about where it comes from. I market “Local” what’s only truly local. I don’t try and convince people that the mangos and limes are grown out back. I don’t mind explaining that “there’s no magic farms”. Walmart, Acme, Whole Foods, and Local Joe’s Roadside all source from the same wholesalers - it’s a billion dollar industry. It’s just that Whole Foods might leverage a higher buying price for higher grade produce or have their produce associates spoil a higher percentage (and honestly, not really) 

[u/Lawgirl77 → u/YouStoleTheKishka]

Thanks for explaining. As it relates to this topic of the Taylor Farms parasites, the repackaging is an issue if people now don’t know that the produce they get is from a brand like Taylor Farms which is in the midst of infecting Americans with parasites. It makes it harder for the consumer to avoid a brand that is currently being investigated or the likely culprit of food borne illnesses.

For my part, I will have to stick with the grocery store so that I can at least see and lookup the produce brands. This means less options for me, but it’s the safest thing I can do with the time I have available to grocery shop.