Why is Martha's Vineyard going vegan? It's because of the ticks.
Advertisement
Known as alpha-gal syndrome, the condition is changing the way many people shop, cook and eat in a place long known as a food-lover's retreat for its thriving independent farms and restaurants. These new habits may prove to be lasting, as some islanders who initially avoided beef and cheese temporarily, out of necessity, later give them up for good out of preference.
Get Winter Soup Club
A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter.
Enter Email
Sign Up
'It's sort of supersized vegetarianism,' said Rebecca Miller, a farm owner who has the syndrome herself.
Rebecca Miller, a farm owner who has alpha-gal syndrome, at the North Tabor Farm Stand in Martha's Vineyard.
ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT
Last year, out of 1,254 tests for the allergy, 523 came back positive, according to laboratory data from Martha's Vineyard Hospital. This was a stunningly fast rise from 2020, when only two out of nine tests were positive.
Advertisement
'Alpha-gal cases are skyrocketing across the island,' said Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a state-funded biologist who leads the tick safety programs on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. He has spent much of the past few summers counting ticks in yards and teaching people to cut down on the risk of bites by, for instance, wearing clothing treated with repellent.
Residents have told him that worries about alpha-gal syndrome keep them from hiking, gardening and going to the beach. A few said they were moving off the island entirely, and while ticks aren't the only reason, they are definitely in the mix.
'There are a lot of angry people, a lot of stressed-out people and a lot of fearful people,' Roden-Reynolds said.
Over the past three decades, alpha-gal syndrome has taken hold in a wide band of the United States from Oklahoma to Long Island, New York, changing the lives and diets of people who come down with it. Its arrival on Martha's Vineyard has been especially dramatic in part because its spread has been so quick, and in part because people come here to unwind in nature, not to hide from it.
The acres of undeveloped woods and waving grasses that make the island so alluring to celebrities and vacationers are also deeply attractive to deer and the ticks that feed and breed on them.
An educational display about ticks used by Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a biologist who surveys tick populations, on the Vineyard.
ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT
A population that was already wary of deer ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, reacted quickly to the ascent of a new species. First spotted on the island in 1985 but seen in significant numbers only in the past few years, the lone star tick has become that scourge of beach communities everywhere: the uninvited guest who won't leave.
Advertisement
After a walk in the woods three summers ago, Nina Levin noticed that the screen on her phone appeared to be moving. It was, in fact, covered with tiny lone star ticks. So was she.
Her walk had brought her into contact with a teeming cluster of crawling, biting arachnids known as a tick bomb. A few hours later, after she ate red meat for dinner, her stomach was in knots with what felt like food poisoning. A test confirmed that she had developed antibodies to the sugar molecule galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, familiarly known as alpha-gal and found in almost all mammals.
Patrick Roden-Reynolds talked to a Vineyard homeowner.
ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT
Her symptoms ('wildly unpleasant') stayed away if she simply avoided red meat until a few months ago, when she was bitten by lone star ticks again. Now, she reacts to milk, cheese and other dairy products, too. This is particularly challenging for Levin because she is the owner and chef of a mobile pizza oven and a dessert trailer known for buttery pastries and soft serve ice cream.
'I'm not a big red-meat eater,' she said. 'But the dairy is, like, tragic.' This summer she is selling a new vegan cruller made with coconut oil, a recipe she came up with at least partly so she could eat one of her own pastries again.
Islanders who come down with alpha-gal syndrome discover that it is much easier to find help here than it would be in many places on the mainland. There is an alpha-gal support group, alpha-gal seminars and spontaneous alpha-gal convocations in the checkout aisle.
'I was standing at the grocery store shortly after I got it, and four out of five people standing in line had it,' said Cassie Courtney, a Chilmark resident who has lived with the syndrome for two years. 'We were all looking at each other's carts asking, 'What are you eating?''
Advertisement
Some restaurants, like the takeout window at Menemsha Galley, hand out a list of alpha-gal-safe menu items. Nightly specials at Mo's Lunch, a counter-service restaurant inside the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs, are either vegan and dairy-free or can easily be modified, a direct response to the rise of alpha-gal, said Maura Martin, an owner and chef.
The rustic roadside market at North Tabor Farm, in Chilmark, now refrigerates plant-based butters, sausages and cheeses on their own shelf behind a slate sign reading 'alpha gal friendly.' The farm's prepared foods have changed, too.
'This year, the stuff we cook or create in our kitchen has been 100% vegetarian,' said Miller, an owner of the farm. 'And a high percentage of it is vegan, too, just because there are so many people' with alpha-gal.
A sign notes that a shelf has Òalpha-gal friendlyÓ products, like plant-based butter, at the North Tabor Farm Stand in MarthaÕs Vineyard, Mass., Aug. 8, 2025. Diets of the New England islandÕs residents are being upended by an onslaught of alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-induced allergy to meat and dairy. (Elizabeth Cecil/The New York Times)
ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT
For people with extreme sensitivity to the alpha-gal molecule, watching what they eat is not enough. They also have to watch where they stand. One local man lost consciousness at a recent cookout after inhaling the smoke from burgers on the grill at a cookout, according to Josh Levy, a dietitian in Edgartown who now advises him.
Other patients have reported allergic reactions to brands of bottled water and white sugar that are processed using animal-bone char.
Both the troublemaking foods and the symptoms they induce -- cramps, diarrhea, hives, swelling, asthma and, in extreme cases, anaphylactic shock -- vary widely from one person to the next.
'The hallmark of alpha-gal is that the reactions are consistently inconsistent,' Roden-Reynolds said.
Advertisement
Some patients find that their sensitivity clears up within six to 12 months. For others, it can linger, though exactly how long is one of many unknowns in the relatively young field of alpha-gal science. A number of people aren't quite sure whether they have gotten over it or not because they've simply stopped eating meat and dairy.
'Some people say it's the best thing that's ever happened, and they'll never go back,' even if their sensitivity vanishes, Levy said.
Whether temporary or not, the vegan boom has inspired some grocers to seek out more plant-based ice creams, cheeses and other products.
'They're selling like crazy,' said Rosemarie Willett, who owns North Tisbury Farm & Market. Several times a day, customers who are loading up their grocery baskets break into impromptu conversations about life without meat and dairy.
'I feel left out at this point that I don't have alpha-gal,' Willett said.
This article originally appeared in
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
a day ago
- Axios
Why Lyme disease cases are rising in Ohio
Justin Timberlake's recent diagnosis is putting a spotlight on Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness with staggering growth in Ohio over the past 15 years. Why it matters: Awareness of early symptoms, such as a rash and fatigue, can help patients catch cases early and treat them with antibiotics. If left untreated, the bacterial infection can lead to long-term neurological problems and symptoms like heart palpitations, arthritis, facial palsy and body aches. By the numbers: There were nearly 1,800 cases reported in Ohio last year, and around 1,200 so far this year. That's up from 40 in 2010. A post-2022 spike is largely due to a change in U.S. reporting requirements — but cases here were climbing before the change, with 615 in 2021, Ohio Department of Health data shows. The disease remains hard to diagnose and likely significantly underreported. Between the lines: Climate change is helping ticks survive longer, find new hosts and spread into new habitats. Ohio's cases started climbing around the time the blacklegged tick that transmits Lyme disease started appearing here, state and OSU researchers found. One silver lining: Only 3% of Ohio's cases in recent years have been recorded in Franklin County, making the local risk lower than in other areas. To help curb severe cases, the OSU Extension opened a tick-testing laboratory this year that detects diseases for $50, with results in 72 hours. Stay safe: Perform a "tick check" and shower after being outdoors, especially in the wooded or brushy areas, per the lab.
National Geographic
2 days ago
- National Geographic
Invasive ticks have scientists spooked about new diseases
Over 100 new tick species have entered the U.S. in the last 50 years. Scientists say it's just the beginning. Two Asian longhorned ticks sit on an open palm. On the left is an adult female, and on the right is a nymph. The longhorned tick is from East Asia, but since entering the U.S., has introduced a diseases dangerous to cattle. Photograph by Lauren Bishop/CDC / Science Source Between 2019 and 2023, seven ticks not native to the United States entered Connecticut, according to a new study published in the journal iScience. They came from a variety of countries as far away as Germany, Guatemala, Tanzania, Brazil, Scotland, and Poland. While the study didn't find evidence of these invasive ticks bringing new diseases to the U.S., experts say they could one day soon. Meanwhile, the study does suggest they could drive a rise in tick-related diseases already seen in the U.S., as they found these ticks can carry pathogens similar to those carried by native ticks. Two invasive tick species from Central America tested positive for a bacteria similar to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a disease that can cause fever, vomiting, muscle pain, and even death if untreated. It's part of an alarming trend: cases of tick-borne disease in the U.S. jumped from about 23,000 in 2004 to around 71,000 cases in 2022. 'Prior to 2018, here in the northeastern U.S… we didn't have cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. But since 2018, we are seeing a number of up to ten cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in [Connecticut]. And we have had mortalities as a result,' says Yale University epidemiologist Goudarz Molaei, co-author of the new study. Experts say identifying all the ways ticks can spread and carry diseases is critical to reducing the number of people who become seriously ill after being bitten. Their spread is a concern—during the last 50 years, over 140 non-native tick species have been brought into the U.S., hitching a ride on livestock, exotic pets, or people. At the same time, climate change has expanded the habitat ticks can live in. If more invasive ticks establish U.S. populations, 'it is just a matter of time that these invasive ticks will either pick up local pathogens or native pathogens that circulate in the U.S., or they start carrying the pathogens that they transmit in their native range,' says Molaei. How ticks spread diseases Ticks pick up diseases after biting animal hosts like deer. They can then transmit disease to humans by biting us. The U.S. is home to around 50 native tick species that bite people. Those bites can result in illnesses such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. (Learn more about how a warming climate is helping ticks reach new places.) A crowdsourced and laboratory-validated tick map shows some species moving northward in recent years. 'We are seeing the increasing prevalence of pathogens in new counties, in new areas, that we never saw in 2019,' says Saravanan Thangamani, SUNY Upstate Medical University microbiologist whose research team created the tick map. Molaei hypothesizes that not all these reported cases are 'true' Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but instead a similar illness caused by the closely related bacterium R. amblyommatis—the same species the invasive ticks in the study are carrying. 'We have evidence that this bacterium is being carried by not only these invasive ticks coming from South and Central America, [but] some local ticks,' says Molaei. The most successful invasive tick to enter the U.S. is the Asian longhorned tick, a relatively recent arrival that was first documented feeding on a sheep in New Jersey in 2017. Native to East Asia and now found in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, this tick has since spread to at least 21 U.S. states and Washington D.C. and carries pathogens responsible for various diseases that native U.S. ticks carry. But a tick testing positive for a pathogen doesn't necessarily mean it's capable of transmitting that pathogen to humans, says Molaei. 'Investigations are ongoing to find out exactly to what extent [the Asian longhorned tick] bites humans, and what disease agents this tick will transmit,' says Molaei. 'Some of the early fears [about longhorned ticks] have not seemed to come to be realized,' Bryon Backenson, director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at the New York State Department of Health. He adds that disease spread depends on ticks finding the right host and conditions: 'Finding a pathogen in the tick is different from whether or not the tick can actually transmit it.' New diseases in animals, but not humans (yet) 'To my knowledge there has not been a human clinical case acquired in the U.S. from an introduced tick,' says Risa Pesapane, Ohio State University disease ecologist. However, the longhorned tick did bring a non-native parasite called Theileria orientalis that can cause bovine theileriosis in cattle, says Pesapane, now widespread and dangerous for livestock health. And invasive ticks that arrived in Florida through the reptile pet trade now feed on native reptiles, adds Pesapane. And climate change is predicted to create a hospitable environment for some warm-weather ticks that may not have been able to survive in a U.S. climate before, allowing tick populations to move farther north. 'One degree is a lot for [ticks]. One degree allows them to move way further north than they would otherwise,' says Backenson. Climate change also means shorter winters, so both ticks and humans are active for more of the year. 'We are seeing longer seasons where more ticks are active… and this generally means there are more days of the year where people are out wearing shorts and sandals and potentially encountering ticks,' says Pesapane. One dangerous virus Thangamani points to is tick-borne encephalitis, which ticks carry in Europe and Asia and can be fatal. Although very few cases have been reported in travelers returning to the U.S., Thangamani claims if those ticks and pathogens were to establish themselves in the U.S., it would be a major threat to human health. 'Ticks are very resilient,' says Thangamani, adding that after feeding, a female tick can lay thousands of eggs. 'All you need is one tick to establish a population in an area.' Preventing tick-borne disease While it's unclear how risky invasive tick species are, it is something scientists are monitoring, says Hannah Tiffin, entomologist at the University of Kentucky. 'It's something that we could do a better job with,' Tiffin says, suggesting better coordination among public health officials and scientists to identify ticks and pathogens before they spread. Thangamani recommends using the tick map to see where you might be most at risk of getting a tick bite. His research team is also encouraging health care providers to refer to the map, so doctors can take it into account when treating patients with tick bites. (Ticks are taking over city parks. Here's how to avoid them.) Travelers should let their doctors know of recent travel if receiving treatment for a tick bite, since some invasive and native ticks look similar, says Tiffin; without knowing a patient's recent travel history, it's easy to visually misidentify a tick species. If hiking near home or abroad, wear protective clothes, use insect repellent, and stay away from tick-infested areas. Before returning to the U.S., Thangamani recommends travelers diligently check their bodies, clothes, and luggage. He adds: 'It is very easy to introduce a new species without us knowing it's happening.'
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Boston Globe
Why is Martha's Vineyard going vegan? It's because of the ticks.
On the porch of the Chilmark General Store and at sunset-watching parties on Menemsha Beach, conversations circle ineluctably to the lone star tick, which after a single bite can leave people with a life-threatening allergy to most meat and dairy. Advertisement Known as alpha-gal syndrome, the condition is changing the way many people shop, cook and eat in a place long known as a food-lover's retreat for its thriving independent farms and restaurants. These new habits may prove to be lasting, as some islanders who initially avoided beef and cheese temporarily, out of necessity, later give them up for good out of preference. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up 'It's sort of supersized vegetarianism,' said Rebecca Miller, a farm owner who has the syndrome herself. Rebecca Miller, a farm owner who has alpha-gal syndrome, at the North Tabor Farm Stand in Martha's Vineyard. ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT Last year, out of 1,254 tests for the allergy, 523 came back positive, according to laboratory data from Martha's Vineyard Hospital. This was a stunningly fast rise from 2020, when only two out of nine tests were positive. Advertisement 'Alpha-gal cases are skyrocketing across the island,' said Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a state-funded biologist who leads the tick safety programs on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. He has spent much of the past few summers counting ticks in yards and teaching people to cut down on the risk of bites by, for instance, wearing clothing treated with repellent. Residents have told him that worries about alpha-gal syndrome keep them from hiking, gardening and going to the beach. A few said they were moving off the island entirely, and while ticks aren't the only reason, they are definitely in the mix. 'There are a lot of angry people, a lot of stressed-out people and a lot of fearful people,' Roden-Reynolds said. Over the past three decades, alpha-gal syndrome has taken hold in a wide band of the United States from Oklahoma to Long Island, New York, changing the lives and diets of people who come down with it. Its arrival on Martha's Vineyard has been especially dramatic in part because its spread has been so quick, and in part because people come here to unwind in nature, not to hide from it. The acres of undeveloped woods and waving grasses that make the island so alluring to celebrities and vacationers are also deeply attractive to deer and the ticks that feed and breed on them. An educational display about ticks used by Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a biologist who surveys tick populations, on the Vineyard. ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT A population that was already wary of deer ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, reacted quickly to the ascent of a new species. First spotted on the island in 1985 but seen in significant numbers only in the past few years, the lone star tick has become that scourge of beach communities everywhere: the uninvited guest who won't leave. Advertisement After a walk in the woods three summers ago, Nina Levin noticed that the screen on her phone appeared to be moving. It was, in fact, covered with tiny lone star ticks. So was she. Her walk had brought her into contact with a teeming cluster of crawling, biting arachnids known as a tick bomb. A few hours later, after she ate red meat for dinner, her stomach was in knots with what felt like food poisoning. A test confirmed that she had developed antibodies to the sugar molecule galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, familiarly known as alpha-gal and found in almost all mammals. Patrick Roden-Reynolds talked to a Vineyard homeowner. ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT Her symptoms ('wildly unpleasant') stayed away if she simply avoided red meat until a few months ago, when she was bitten by lone star ticks again. Now, she reacts to milk, cheese and other dairy products, too. This is particularly challenging for Levin because she is the owner and chef of a mobile pizza oven and a dessert trailer known for buttery pastries and soft serve ice cream. 'I'm not a big red-meat eater,' she said. 'But the dairy is, like, tragic.' This summer she is selling a new vegan cruller made with coconut oil, a recipe she came up with at least partly so she could eat one of her own pastries again. Islanders who come down with alpha-gal syndrome discover that it is much easier to find help here than it would be in many places on the mainland. There is an alpha-gal support group, alpha-gal seminars and spontaneous alpha-gal convocations in the checkout aisle. 'I was standing at the grocery store shortly after I got it, and four out of five people standing in line had it,' said Cassie Courtney, a Chilmark resident who has lived with the syndrome for two years. 'We were all looking at each other's carts asking, 'What are you eating?'' Advertisement Some restaurants, like the takeout window at Menemsha Galley, hand out a list of alpha-gal-safe menu items. Nightly specials at Mo's Lunch, a counter-service restaurant inside the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs, are either vegan and dairy-free or can easily be modified, a direct response to the rise of alpha-gal, said Maura Martin, an owner and chef. The rustic roadside market at North Tabor Farm, in Chilmark, now refrigerates plant-based butters, sausages and cheeses on their own shelf behind a slate sign reading 'alpha gal friendly.' The farm's prepared foods have changed, too. 'This year, the stuff we cook or create in our kitchen has been 100% vegetarian,' said Miller, an owner of the farm. 'And a high percentage of it is vegan, too, just because there are so many people' with alpha-gal. A sign notes that a shelf has Òalpha-gal friendlyÓ products, like plant-based butter, at the North Tabor Farm Stand in MarthaÕs Vineyard, Mass., Aug. 8, 2025. Diets of the New England islandÕs residents are being upended by an onslaught of alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-induced allergy to meat and dairy. (Elizabeth Cecil/The New York Times) ELIZABETH CECIL/NYT For people with extreme sensitivity to the alpha-gal molecule, watching what they eat is not enough. They also have to watch where they stand. One local man lost consciousness at a recent cookout after inhaling the smoke from burgers on the grill at a cookout, according to Josh Levy, a dietitian in Edgartown who now advises him. Other patients have reported allergic reactions to brands of bottled water and white sugar that are processed using animal-bone char. Both the troublemaking foods and the symptoms they induce -- cramps, diarrhea, hives, swelling, asthma and, in extreme cases, anaphylactic shock -- vary widely from one person to the next. 'The hallmark of alpha-gal is that the reactions are consistently inconsistent,' Roden-Reynolds said. Advertisement Some patients find that their sensitivity clears up within six to 12 months. For others, it can linger, though exactly how long is one of many unknowns in the relatively young field of alpha-gal science. A number of people aren't quite sure whether they have gotten over it or not because they've simply stopped eating meat and dairy. 'Some people say it's the best thing that's ever happened, and they'll never go back,' even if their sensitivity vanishes, Levy said. Whether temporary or not, the vegan boom has inspired some grocers to seek out more plant-based ice creams, cheeses and other products. 'They're selling like crazy,' said Rosemarie Willett, who owns North Tisbury Farm & Market. Several times a day, customers who are loading up their grocery baskets break into impromptu conversations about life without meat and dairy. 'I feel left out at this point that I don't have alpha-gal,' Willett said. This article originally appeared in
