--- title: "The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor" description: "The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak." date: "2026-08-01" modified: "2026-08-01" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/science-energy/diarrhea-lettuce-taylor-farms-prison-labor" categories: - "Agriculture" - "Science & Energy" --- # The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor ![A Taylor Farms sign is displayed at one of their facilities on July 17, 2026 in Salinas, California.]() *Benjamin Fanjoy / Getty Images* When the United States ratified the 13th amendment in 1865, federal lawmakers very nearly outlawed slavery for good — but not entirely. Tucked within arguably the most important corner of the US constitution is a massive caveat: "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, *except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted*, shall exist within the United States" (emphasis added.) In the 160-some years since that amendment, a quieter type of forced servitude has lived on in the US: prison labor. From the [debt peonage]() of the post-Civil War reconstruction era to the [privatized contracting]() of the 21st century, prison labor is a massive money maker, generating [$11 billion]() worth of revenue in 2022 alone. As horrifying a thought as it is, one of the companies still benefiting from the practice is in the news for another reason: spreading a gut-busting diarrhea parasite through mass-produced shredded lettuce in grocery stores and fast food outlets. It turns out that Taylor Farms, the agricultural company widely believed to be behind the [*cyclospora* outbreak]() currently raging throughout the US, is also heavily involved in modern-day forced labor. In reporting from 2023 that was [resurfaced this week on social media](), the publication [*Prison Legal News* revealed]() that Taylor Farms was contracting labor from the Arizona Department of Correction, Rehabilitation, and Reentry for the low, low price of just $4.75 an hour — far below the cost to pay a non-incarcerated worker the federal minimum wage. (And to be clear, that's not the hourly wage paid to the inmate, which is capped at [$1.50]() in Arizona.) Taylor Farms is just one firm involved in the practice in Arizona. Others include [Hickman's Egg Farms](), [NatureSweet](), and [Televerde](), each of which contracted labor from Arizona DCRR's for-profit arm, Arizona Correctional Industries. That company's job is basically to churn out bulk goods for the state of Arizona, like license plates, though it also makes quite a bit of money selling the labor-hours of incarcerated people to private companies. Worse yet, some of those incarcerated workers may have been here as non-citizens — meaning it would be illegal to employ them in the same low-wage jobs if they *weren't* being held in detention. As *Prison Legal* noted at the time, at least 26 prisoners employed by these companies had been detained by ICE, meaning that outside of incarceration, hiring them would have been illegal. To put it bluntly: their status as prisoners was the only thing that made the arrangement legal. In all, the DCRR told *Prison Legal* it had hired out 15,700 "Mexican nationals" between 2008 and 2023, though couldn't say how many of those workers were undocumented immigrants. As Ruben Reyes, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association told the publication at the time: "I'm venturing a guess that a large majority of the people who are labeled a Mexican national by \[DCRR\] are unauthorized to work here." Put into context, the revelation is a horrifying twist in an already nauseating story of corporate greed and deregulation. Though the institution of slavery may have been formally abolished, its legacy lives on — fully embraced by the for-profit companies pumping our food supply full of parasites. Taylor Farms didn't respond to a request for comment. **More on incarceration:** *[Prisoners Alarmed to Discover That a Startup Is Training an AI Based on Their Phone Calls]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()