A Farmer's 'Beef' with Chipotle: The Burrito Giant's Ads, Depiction of Farmers and Its Food Come into Question
What draws you to eat a particular burrito? Taste, quality or price -- or all of the above? And if you are paying more, are you truly getting better quality, or are you just getting wrapped up in the claims and flashy advertising?
One farmer gave burrito giant Chipotle a piece of his mind on the depictions of farmers, the origins of its food and challenged the company to change its ways.
CNN'S Eatocracy recently featured an opinion piece from Ryan Goodman, whose life's work is ingrained in agriculture, working on ranches across the country, as well as studying cattle nutrition and reproduction. He works daily with farmers and ranchers, helping their voices become part of the national dialogues on food and agriculture topics.
So what is this farmer's beef with Chipotle? And what's the general consensus on the ground, in the fields?
According to Goodman, farmers and ranchers are upset about how Chipotle, a popular burrito chain, is portraying its business. Chipotle has run a series of ads during the past few years centered around "Food With Integrity" and the idea that we can"Cultivate a Better World" by eating their burritos.
While the ads attempt to shine a light on the positive trends in modern food and livestock production, does Chipotle really implement these practices for all of its locations?
"The Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill sets itself apart from most other chain restaurants by serving burritos with a side of buzzwords," Goodman explained. "Many of their ingredients are labeled natural, organic, and 'Responsibly Raised' meat without antibiotics and Chipotle has even gone as far as labeling ingredients that may contain genetically modified organisms on their website. However, Chipotle has struggled with sourcing enough ingredients for their over 900 locations to meet those claims, leaving customers paying premium price for standard ingredients.
"Chipotle's marketing campaigns rely on stirring up emotion with imagery that paints a bleak picture of a futuristic food system that is factory-like and systemic problems with nefarious and imagined solutions. Chipotle wants to stand out from other fast food chains by convincing their customers that eating at Chipotle will help fight the good fight against the 'bad guys'. With everything from scarecrows to serenades by Willie Nelson, Chipotle captures the attention, and emotions, of their audiences with plenty of fear and misinformation."
Needless to say, Chipotle is doing well for itself with gross sales over $3.2 billion last year, and claims to be the "champions for the little guy in the food supply." For that very reason, Goodman points out the irony in its latest marketing campaign, "Farmed and Dangerous," which delves into "the greed and aggressiveness of a dark and industrial food chain."
The four-part series that airs on Hulu features "'PetroPellet,' a fictitious petroleum product resulting in exploding cows," reportedly came with a hefty price-tag of $1 million in production.
While Chipotle's chief marketing and development officer, Mark Crumpacker says "the series is intended to be a 'satirical comedy that points out agriculture's aggressiveness to earn a profit, no matter the cost to animal health or well-being,'" farmers aren't impressed, they are actually really concerned, Goodman points out.
In another case of farmers vs. giant food chains with lofty budgets and marketing teams, Goodman feels strongly about what he feels are disingenuous ways the company is trying to conjure emotions.
Goodman sent out a challenge to Chipotle's marketing team, saying: "There is no need to hide behind a satirical comedy series or paid actors. Practice what you preach to your audience. Go, seek out the farmers and ranchers producing our food and I do not just mean those growing your 'Responsibly Raised,' organic and natural products.
"Go talk with the farmers and ranchers that you are attacking with your ad campaigns, start a dialogue and let the conversation come from both sides of the plate in order to learn where our food comes from. I am more than happy to help you if you will just stop the attacks on those growing our food."
Is Chipotle taking it too far with its latest ads and hulu series, making light of an important issue, or is the company just trying to have a good sense of humor? Watch the official trailer of "Farmed and Dangerous," and you be the judge.
Follow Ryan Goodman on Twitter @AgProudRyan, as well as his personal blog, AgricultureProud.com.
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