Chipotle says it’s all about “food with integrity.” “Facts with integrity,” not so much. Marketing efforts by the burrito chain once owned by McDonald’s smear many of America’s farmers and use scare tactics to drive consumers away from Chipotle’s competitors.
On Feb. 17, Chipotle released an online original video series on Hulu.com, called “Farmed and Dangerous.” The comedy pits a the fictitious Animoil farm and their powerful public relations agency Industrial Food Image Bureau (I.F.I.B.) run by Buck Marshall against little guy “sustainable” farmer Chip Randolph, who has audaciously spread online video of their cow exploding because it was fed “petropellets.” The storyline is laughable, but the impression that big agriculture is guilty of practices that are harmful to animals and people isn’t.
Jim Cramer at CNBC ate up the program, promoting it and Chipotle on “Mad Money” on Feb. 3 and 4, long before the show was available for public viewing. He called it “brilliant” and “one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.” On Feb. 3, he interviewed Chipotle’s chief financial officer extensively, and Cramer claimed that farm groups really talk like Buck Marshall, the fictitious head of I.F.I.B. on the web series.
“Good Morning America” also mentioned the series on Feb. 18, and said it was “funny.” The segment quoted two Chipotle spokesmen, but not a single upset farmer or farm association.
According to news outlets including Politico, Chipotle has openly said the show “has a social message.” Chris Arnold, Chipotle’s communications director, told Variety in an email, “Our aim was to create a show that presented some issues in the food system -- the heavy reliance on fossil-fuels in large-scale farming, GMOs, the overuse of antibiotics -- but to do that in a way that was entertaining.”
Many farmers, however, are not entertained by the food company’s portrayal of their businesses. The Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel (MJS) spoke with Wisconsin farmers angered by the show. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation called it “divisive propaganda” and a “smear campaign against America’s farm families by a corporate restaurant chain.” MJS also reported that Mike North, of the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association, said “It’s saddening. It really is. There is a basic misunderstanding of what farming is and how it has progressed over time.”
Nicole, who blogs at Farm Girl Facts of Life, spent more than 20 years on the farm and said, “The Chipotle series called Farmed and Dangerous that’s coming out on Hulu is crap. There, I flat out said it. They are using humor, and scary marketing ploys to scare consumers into buying organic and antibiotic free food.”
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. is a chain of restaurants in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France, specializing in burritos and tacos. Founded by Steve Ells in 1993, Chipotle had 16 restaurants (all in Colorado) when McDonald's Corporation became a major investor in 1998. By the time McDonald's fully divested itself from Chipotle in 2006, the chain had grown to over 500 locations. With more than 1500 locations Chipotle had a net income in 2012 of US$278 million and a staff of 37,310 employees.
I guess they're trying to be the Ben & Jerry's of burritos.
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