#bruce taylor

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Black-backed woodpeckers - Note the glossy black back, black head, white mustache stripe and throat, and barred flanks.

© Bruce Taylor

[mermazeablaze]

When you research Taylor Farms (cyclospora outbreak), these are the things you find—and this is just from me skimming:

We are talking about a true "Lettuce Monarchy." CEO Bruce Taylor is the grandson of Thomas Church, a mid-century "Lettuce King." This single family has controlled the U.S. packaged salad market for nearly a century through Taylor Farms & Fresh Express, operating a direct, tightly locked supply network with massive fast-food juggernauts like McDonald's & Chipotle. They use this corporate exclusivity to control exactly what agricultural data makes it to the public, shielding a multi-billion-dollar brand from legal accountability.

But behind that clean retail label is a massive history of exploitation, severe safety violations, & corporate cover-ups.

It starts with their "Permanent Temp Trick." The company uses third-party agencies like Slingshot Connections & Abel Mendoza, Inc. to keep assembly-line workers classified as "temporary" for up to 15 years, systematically denying them benefits, job security, & raises. When confronted with these massive federal civil rights violations, Bruce Taylor famously went on record defending this temp-agency pipeline, claiming those thousands of laborers have plenty of federal protections.

When they aren't exploiting the temp loophole, they are looking elsewhere. They’ve partnered with state transitional prison labor programs, notably in Arizona, to use incarcerated individuals to sort & pack salad kits for national grocery chains.

Even worse is how they treat the vulnerable workers they do hire. Between 2019 & 2023, two HR managers at their Automated Harvesting LLC subsidiary orchestrated a massive internal $3 Million Visa Fraud Scheme. The duo generated & cashed over 1,800 fraudulent checks totaling more than $3 million, intentionally stealing the identities of vulnerable Mexican migrant workers who had already returned home on expired visas. Following a deep district attorney investigation, both employees finally pleaded no contest to felony embezzlement in June 2026.

The disregard for human life inside their facilities is staggering. In late 2025, federal OSHA hit Taylor Farms New Jersey with a massive $1.12 million fatality fine after a worker was killed cleaning machinery. Inspectors uncovered 16 "willful & repeated" safety violations regarding hazardous machinery maintenance, proving that corporate leadership completely bypassed basic, legally mandated workplace safety protocols & intentionally neglected "lockout/tagout" rules—which cut power to heavy equipment during cleaning.

Then there is the Tracy, CA chemical spill cover-up at Taylor Farms Pacific. Plant managers tried to hide a toxic chlorine gas leak that hospitalized 20 people. Instead of evacuating, managers passed out cheap paper dust masks & ordered staff to keep working on the line. Workers had to bypass management entirely just to call 911.

When workers tried to unionize after that terrifying spill, management engaged in extreme retaliation to kill the effort. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had to step in after finding the branch illegally spied on workers, fired organizers, & hired high-priced anti-union consulting firms to threaten immigrant employees with ICE if they tried to unionize. Bruce Taylor publicly labeled the national Teamsters Union campaigns "frivolous" & claimed it was all a smear tactic.

The discrimination inside is deeply systemic. A massive federal civil rights lawsuit detailed that upper management deliberately forced African American employees into entirely separate break areas. Company leadership was caught systematically burying internal racism & discrimination complaints, leaving workers completely isolated until they finally banded together for a massive 70-page class-action lawsuit.

The public is kept completely in the dark about the dangers. Taylor Farms was tied to major multi-state E. coli outbreaks in 2025 where federal regulators at the FDA & CDC identified Taylor Farms romaine lettuce as the source—but actively hid the company's identity from the public.

How do they get away with it? Bruce Taylor acts as a political puppet master. He pours tens of thousands of dollars into highly calculated local political action committees—like the "Protect Salinas" PAC—to sway California city council elections. Local watchdog groups have flagged his financial contributions as direct attempts to capture local governments & block regulations on agricultural land use & labor.

On top of that, Taylor sits on heavily funded national agricultural boards & trade association PACs—like the Western Growers Association—to heavily lobby congress against strict federal worker-safety laws.

This is what you're actually supporting when you buy those grocery store salad kits spreading cyclospora.

[hellyeah2000s]

Rest in peace, Bruce Taylor (1936 – 2025) He was CEO of [adult swim] who voiced so many promos, he also rapping to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme.

[adult swim]: Bruce Taylor sings Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme pumper (2004) promotional video Network: Adult Swim (Cartoon Network)

[spirit-fireanddew]

Lovely

The past is lovely, it lasts forever.

Somewhere, I’m still

lying under the lawn sprinkler

with no coppertone on,

the grass cool and elastic under my back,

a black spaniel nuzzling my feet.

The cars are old-fashioned and optimistic,

the people who drive them

have fallen in love with the future.

They can’t know that when they get here

they will love the past more,

that the present will look like

a stupendous machine

for forcing things to stop existing.

Well, to live for the moment

is best, but the moments, the little

jiffies, they are startled

to be here, like

the high-shouldered cuprous beetles

that live beneath patio stones,

if you’re curious you lift one up

and let it run down your arm.

The other ones scoot for cover,

struggling down into the leaf mulch,

kicking frantically.

-Bruce Taylor

[coffeethree]

Hello people who love Adult Swim, I have heartbreaking news.

Bruce Taylor, the CEO of Adult Swim has sadly passed away on September 9th.

Adult Swim has paid tribute after his passing

Rest in peace Bruce Taylor, thank you for giving us Smiling Friends, King of the hill, aqua team hunger force, Rick and Morty, Robot Chicken, Morel Orel, Superjail, and many more shows you have produced in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, you will not be forgotten! 🕊️

"No kids in the pool, all kids out of the pool" -[A S]

[poem-today]

A poem by Bruce Taylor

LOVELY

The past is lovely, it lasts forever. Somewhere, I'm still lying under the lawn sprinkler with no coppertone on, the grass cool and elastic under my back, a black spaniel nuzzling my feet. The cars are old-fashioned and optimistic, the people who drive them have fallen in love with the future. They can't know that when they get here they will love the past more, that the present will look like a stupendous machine for forcing things to stop existing. Well, to live for the moment is best, but the moments, the little jiffies, they are startled to be here, like the high-shouldered cuprous beetles that live beneath patio stones, if you're curious you lift one up and let it run down your arm. The other ones scoot for cover, struggling down into the leaf mulch, kicking frantically.

Bruce Taylor

[a-solitary-sea-rover-backup]

2023 Sydney Hobart: Father and son duo >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News

Collectively, Bruce Taylor and his son Drew Taylor have spent the best part of a lifetime sailing in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Sai

Collectively, Bruce Taylor and his son Drew Taylor have spent the best part of a lifetime sailing in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Sailing on Bruce Taylor’s Reichel/Pugh 40, Chutzpah, this year’s race will be their 30th together from a total of 72 starts between them, starting on December 26, 2023.

It will mark a record for a father and son combination in the race that is organized by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. “This year will be Drew’s 30th and all of his Hobarts have been with me,” Bruce, 73, confirmed.

While Drew Taylor will get to celebrate his 30th start in the 628 nautical mile race, it will be the 42nd for Bruce, who sailed in 12 Hobarts before Drew took to the event.

Bruce is immensely proud of their father-son bond as Hobart crew mates that began in 1978 when Drew was 16 after having proven his ability on “a few delivery trips.” At the time, the Sydney Hobart did not have the current regulation that required sailors in the race to be at least 18 years old.

[poem-today]

A poem by Bruce Taylor

Middle-Aged Men, Leaning

     four movements ~ They lean on rakes. It's late, it is evening already inside their houses. The children are gone. Their wives are on the phone talking softly to someone else. This frost, this early Fall upon their minds, a small measure of patience and regard as if the twilight world in bright papery pieces diminished so and thus. ~ They lean on hoes in Spring the green earth turned once more beneath them their eyes full of flowers their hands full too of the planting still to do the weeds and drought awaiting their pocketful of seed the water they must carry. ~ In an early winter dark they lean on shovels, a graying heart a last bad rap inside them, looking upward toward the sky the yard, the driveway, the car the street, the world itself for all they know buried by the falling snow even as they gasp to breathe and re-breathe the visible breath, like a burst cartoon balloon of an old imperfect prayer. ~ In summer, after long mowing, they lean toward a growing silence in the plush grasses in leaves of many greens in trees of their own colors where grackle and crow each to its own shadow in the dusky reach of branches gather quietly to stay.

Bruce Taylor