Cases of the explosive diarrhea-causing cyclosporiasis parasite in North Carolina are on the rise because of a widespread outbreak linked to produce. The state health department is now reporting at least 561 cases since May 1. For context, that's almost twice the total for North Carolina in all of last year. And the Charlotte Ledger says it's a gut check moment for local restaurants, farmers and food-related businesses. The Charlotte Ledger’s Tony Mecia joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: Let’s start with farmers. It seems like this is bad news for them, with people being told to be cautious with produce and avoid some staples like lettuce. Is it?
Tony Mecia: The farmers that we talked to said it kind of cuts both ways. Yes, people are pulling back from eating lettuce, salads, and certain other vegetables that you don't wash before eating. But at the same time, they're very hopeful, these farmers are, that people are going to look at how food makes it to our plates and say, ‘look, I want something local where I know where it came from’ as opposed to these multinational companies with large and complex supply chains.
So there might be a little bit of a short-term downturn in the purchases of lettuce, which, incidentally, are not grown in North Carolina in the summer. It's just too hot.
Terry: Is this affecting restaurants and grocery stores? Or are people just saying, ‘meh,’ got to eat.’
Mecia: Oh, it's definitely affecting them. I think you've seen grocery stores have pulled some of these bagged salad kits from their shelves, the ones that were subject to recall. Some of them are warning their customers or at least advising their customers that, ‘hey, listen, we're complying with the FDA. The material that we have has not been implicated in anything.’ The restaurants it cuts a couple of different ways as well. Certainly, Taco Bell, which was identified by some health authorities in the Midwest as being a source, some of the lettuce at those Taco Bells was implicated.
The Taco Bells here that I drove by this week are pretty quiet. I went to the one at the Arboretum on Tuesday at lunchtime and it was empty. Incidentally, North Carolina health officials said this week that they haven't seen Taco Bells as a source of any of the numbers here in North Carolina. Then you have a lot of other restaurants, it's kind of business as usual. Maybe some customers are asking to substitute in a quinoa instead of leafy vegetables or potato salad, something like that.
Terry: Over to foreclosures now, they’re up year over year in the Charlotte metro. Sharply. Some people are probably having 2008 flashbacks. But there’s a caveat you report. What is that?
Mecia: It's up about 71% in the first six months of the year in the Charlotte region compared to the previous year. Really, this is, in some ways, maybe a return to pre-COVID levels. It's coming off a low base, so you can see those higher percentage increases. During COVID, of course, you had some of these programs that aim to keep people in their homes. Those have now expired.
Terry: So what’s behind the rise in the numbers?
Mecia: Experts say it's really a few different things. There are certainly growing financial strains. The price of housing is rising. The cost of living is going up. We all know that inflation has been a concern, as well as just sort of this return to these pre-COVID times, when you didn't have these programs that kept people in their homes.
Terry: Finally, the self-driving company Waymo has replaced its fleet of vehicles operating in Charlotte. But they’re still not driverless yet, right?
Mecia: They are not driverless. The news this week is that they have added some additional vehicles. They're called Ojai vehicles. They are EVs that are bigger and more spacious than the usual Waymo vehicles. Waymo did tell us that the next step in introducing them in Charlotte will be to have their employees riding in the autonomous vehicles and then ultimately, of course, accepting passengers from the public. Looks like that's likely to be a few more months before you can ride one of these, Marshall.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson & Associates and Central Piedmont Community College.
