{"id":46685,"date":"2026-08-15T13:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T08:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46685"},"modified":"2026-08-15T13:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T08:17:27","slug":"actor-mark-ruffalo-says-rfk-jr-has-killed-the-lettuce-market-amid-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46685","title":{"rendered":"Actor Mark Ruffalo says RFK Jr. \u2018has killed the lettuce market\u2019 amid outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/04\/AP24044037660443_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Actor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/mark-ruffalo\/\">Mark Ruffalo<\/a> said Health and Human Services Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/robert-f-kennedy-jr\/\">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> is to blame for a historic drop in lettuce prices, pointing to Mr. Kennedy rather than the food safety outbreak tied to Mexican-sourced iceberg lettuce that has been rattling the produce market for weeks.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/markruffalo.bsky.social\/post\/3msxvixmixk2w\">Thursday post<\/a> on BlueSky, Mr. Ruffalo wrote, \u201cRobert F KennedyJR has killed the lettuce market by not getting to the bottom of these outbreaks and playing politics with everything. We can\u2019t trust the CDC or him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lettuce prices fell 16.4% in July, <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/markets\/commodities\/articles\/lettuce-prices-fell-record-16-134500138.html\">the largest one-month decline<\/a> on record for the category in the Consumer Price Index, according to federal data released Wednesday. Economists have tied the drop to consumer avoidance of lettuce following a multistate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/cyclospora-outbreak\/\">Cyclospora outbreak<\/a>, not to any HHS policy failure. Even after the plunge, lettuce prices remain up 7.5% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Federal regulators said their traceback investigation and outbreak data converge on shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/taylor-farms-de-mexico\/\">Taylor Farms de Mexico<\/a>, based in Guanajuato, Mexico. The company voluntarily recalled iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, and Taylor Farms has disputed the FDA\u2019s conclusion, citing a since-clarified false-positive test result. The scare has also weighed on restaurant chains with no connection to the contaminated product: Chipotle said the outbreak cut into sales by roughly 2 percentage points in the back half of July, while Sweetgreen cut its full-year outlook, citing reduced demand.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Horpedahl, an associate professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas and director of its Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, said the price drop reflects consumers simply avoiding the product.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s fallen because nobody wants it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #3e3e3e;\"><em><br \/>\n                          This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times&#8217; AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times&#8217; original reporting, wire services, and\/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/ai-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\">AI policy<\/a> or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/14\/actor-mark-ruffalo-says-rfk-jr-killed-lettuce-market-amid-outbreak\/mailto:sfink@washingtontimes.com\">sfink@washingtontimes.com<\/a><br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #3e3e3e;\"><em><br \/>\n                          The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/14\/actor-mark-ruffalo-says-rfk-jr-killed-lettuce-market-amid-outbreak\/mailto:aispotlight@washingtontimes.com\">aispotlight@washingtontimes.com<\/a>.<br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actor Mark Ruffalo said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is to blame for a historic drop in lettuce prices, pointing to Mr. Kennedy rather than the food safety outbreak tied to Mexican-sourced iceberg lettuce that has been rattling the produce market for weeks. In a Thursday post on BlueSky, Mr. Ruffalo&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/04\/AP24044037660443_c0-0-5856-3416_s1200x700.jpg?470268005cfb936ebc67d1e6b7899165e52e28c9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}