California farm company identified as possible cyclosporiasis outbreak source: Reports

[Cirsium]

40. Your objection

Last edited Fri Jul 17, 2026, 08:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Your objection, then, is to my claim that people who assume that disease outbreaks are caused by workers defecating in the field are ignorant about agriculture.

Yes, it is possible that someone who has knowledge about agriculture could also have experience with defecation in the field.

Many people have never worked on a farm or in a food processing facility. They picture contamination in terms of individual behavior because that's a familiar mental model: "Someone didn't wash their hands." They may not have thought about how a recirculating wash system, a contaminated irrigation source, or a centralized processing line can amplify contamination across thousands of pounds of produce.

That doesn't necessarily make them ignorant in a pejorative sense. It does mean they're often reasoning from intuition rather than from how large-scale food production actually works.