“I Almost Got Fucked By Mothman”

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.

>2 weeks later

Frodo when speaking with Galadriel has this interaction;

‘I would ask one thing before we go,’ said Frodo, ‘a thing which I often meant to ask Gandalf in Rivendell. I am permitted to wear the One Ring: why cannot I see all the others and know the thoughts of those that wear them?’ ‘You have not tried,’ [Galadriel] said. ‘Only thrice have you set the Ring upon your finger since you knew what you possessed. Do not try! It would destroy you. Did not Gandalf tell you that the rings give power according to the measure of each possessor? Before you could use that power you would need to become stronger, and to train your will to the domination of others.’

Frodo here is given the information he needs to figure out how to wield the ring.

Very soon after this Boromir, a man who had been nothing but kind and enduring and who had saved Frodo's life once already, is ensnared by the ring and attacks him. To me, this marks the moment Frodo realises he will likely come to the same end, no one has the will to resist the ring.

Soon after that, Gollum joins him and Frodo acquires the means to essentially practice dominating someone's will. By the time this becomes relevant again it is clear that Frodo knows a great deal more about his charge than he used too and has already made his plan. In sight of the Black Gate, he tells Gollum this;

[In reference to the danger Gollum is in] You swore a promise by what you call the Precious. Remember that! It will hold you to it; but it will seek a way to twist it to your own undoing. Already you are being twisted. You revealed yourself to me just now, foolishly. Give it back to Smeagol you said. Do not say that again! Do not let that thought grow in you! You will never get it back. But the desire of it may betray you to a bitter end. You will never get it back. In the last need, Smeagol, I should put on the Precious; and the Precious mastered you long ago. If I, wearing it, were to command you, you would obey, even if it were to leap from a precipice or to cast yourself into the fire. And such would be my command. So have a care, Smeagol!’

He quite literally describes what happens in the final confrontation, like some books foreshadow their endings and some of them just have the main character tell you what will happen. It makes me so insane.

In my mind this is also Frodo trying to soothe his own conscience here. His words will not reach Gollum deeply enough, Gollum will always choose the ring in the end, but Frodo is still using that compulsion as a means to succeed in his divine martyr's quest, putting the burden on Gollum's body whilst he takes it upon his soul.

Of course, this was all preordained by divine decree, there is no other way for this story to end, which I feel like Frodo is more consciously aware of than many other characters, casting his growing despair and melancholy in a new light. Then, well, it all happens just as foretold;

‘Down, down!’ [Frodo] gasped, clutching his hand to his breast, so that beneath the cover of his leather shirt he clasped the Ring. ‘Down, you creeping thing, and out of my path! Your time is at an end. You cannot slay me or betray me now.’ Then suddenly, Sam saw these two rivals with other vision. A crouching shape, scarcely more than the shadow of a living thing, a creature now wholly ruined and defeated, yet filled with a hideous lust and rage; and before it stood stern, untouchable now by pity, a figure robed in white, but at its breast it held a wheel of fire. Out of the fire there spoke a commanding voice. ‘Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom.’ Then the vision passed and Sam saw Frodo standing, hand on breast, his breath coming in great gasps, and Gollum at his feet, resting on his knees with his wide-splayed hands upon the ground.

The curse is set, Gollum attacks Frodo within the crucible of the volcano, biting the ring off of his finger and thereby sealing his own fate. His celebration at being reunited with his precious sees him slip and tumble into the chasm below.