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OPINION: Truth in Agriculture |
Special to the Post | 6/30/09
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Chipotle Mexican Grill is misleading American consumers and financially benefiting from a "feel good, no guilt" marketing message that in fact is untrue, according to Trent Loos, Nebraska rancher and founder of Faces of Agriculture.
Unlike that which is portrayed in Chipotle's marketing campaign, Loos believes that modern agriculture and confined animal agriculture are sustainable. His advice to consumers is that, "If anyone attempts to tell you otherwise, they are probably trying to sell you on their product, and I suggest you double-check their integrity and true objectives."
 On behalf of today's food producers, Loos has asked Chipotle to immediately refrain from using the phrase "food with integrity" out of concern for the future of the American farmer as well as the American consumer. He also is urging that consumers and farmers not frequent Chipotle establishments until the company is willing to change its ways and stop being disingenuous about its motives.
While long troubled by Chipotle's messaging, Loos is taking action after viewing the June 16 segment on "Nightline" in which Chipotle owner Steve Ells was openly and publicly talking about his company's commitment to producing "food with integrity" while pigs in the background could be seen drinking from puddles that likely contained their own urine, feces and other possible contaminants and bacteria.
"As a kid, we raised pigs out in the hills, and in those mud holes, pigs exhibited their 'piggy-ness.' Compared to today's modern confinement pork production system, where comprehensive manure management plans are in place to protect the environment, our system of 30 years ago was not good for the environment in any shape or form. Trees still do not grow in the area where our pigs once roamed," Loos has told the company.
As a sixth-generation U.S. farmer, Loos has personally provided daily care for more than 1 million farm animals in his lifetime.
Loos also is concerned with the chicken served in Chipotle restaurants. In the "Nightline" segment, Ells pointed out that the free-range chicken served in his company's restaurants comes from chickens only fed vegetarian diets.
"I still, today, have free-ranging hens on my farm, and they eat a vast number of insects and any dead animal carcass that might accidentally show up. So, I am telling you that there is zero integrity in a man who states that our chickens only eat vegetarian diets if they come from free-range conditions. This is just not possible," said Loos.
While the United States of America is indeed a country where one has the choice to reject the science and technology that have been the success story of American agriculture, Loos told Ells that America's farmers and ranchers will no longer stand back and allow Chipotle or any food company to mislead consumers about the accomplishments of the livestock industry over the past 50 years and how the planet, society and our animals have benefited greatly from those.
"I have been at every level in animal agriculture, and I can tell you that modern agriculture, through confinement housing, has taken our nation's food system to the most elite in the world. Today's farmers produce the safest, most wholesome supply of food with fewer resources impacted than at any time in recorded history," said Loos. |
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