My Beef with Chipotle

Chipotle makes delicious burritos, and I doubt that many will argue against that. But their marketing strategy is a little off. Is it effective for selling burritos? Yes, very effective.

When I say that their marketing strategy is a little off, I mean that it seems to contradict their stated beliefs. They are all about supporting family farmers, local farms, sustainably-raised food, organic produce, and antibiotic-free meat. And there is nothing wrong with any of that. It is your choice to choose what foods you want to consume and Chipotle’s choice to choose what foods they want to serve. (See my previous post, Choices, for more). But the way that Chipotle is advertising this is what has gotten me and many members of the agriculture industry all fired up.

Chipotle’s “Food with Integrity” campaign clearly implies that they support family farmers who (and I quote from their website) “respect the land and the animals in their care.” They go on to clarify that because they support family farmers, it means that they raise animals without the use of antibiotics, and that Chipotle sources organic and local produce.

The wording in that implies to me that only family farmers grow organic produce, are local, and raise animals without antibiotics. Sure, some probably do, and that is their choice. But I found more information about family farming as I explored further into their website. According to Chipotle, family farms are slowly disappearing from the rural landscape. I do agree with the following statement that I found on the same webpage:

“Family farmers take great care to respect their farmland because it’s the only land they have. If they plant one crop over and over that depletes the nutrients in the soil, they’re the ones who suffer. Family farmers rotate crops, plant multiple crops, avoid pesticides and generally farm in a sustainable way.”

Awesome, except the heading of the page:

“Industrial ranching and factory farming produce tons of waste while depleting the soil of nutrients.”

Time for a fact:

If the vast majority of farms are family farms, then what’s a factory farm? Can a family farm be a factory farm?

A family farm is a farm that is owned and operated by a family. Sometimes families incorporate these farms for financial reasons. A farm is a business, no matter how large or how small. By making the farm it’s own business, it protects the family in case the farm goes under. If a farm is incorporated, it is still owned and operated by the family. So incorporated farms can be family farms.

I had to Google the definition for a factory farm, and the general consensus I found from the webpages that came up was that a factory farm is a large-scale farm. So is a factory farm the same thing as a family farm? Factory farming sure sounds scarier than family farming.

Chipotle does support family farmers, but they also use misconceptions to drive their marketing strategy. If they use specific terminology, they can make you believe that those big incorporated farms with lots of land or lots of animals are just big businesses trying to make money.

I’ll be completely honest here: farmers do want to make money. But if a farmer mistreats an animal or misuses their land by not replenishing nutrients, they are going to be impacted financially. I’m not saying that farmers are greedy, rather that they have no incentive to be mean to their animals or abuse their land. Land isn’t something that we can make, in fact there is less and less every decade because of population growth. That’s why we have to find ways to produce more food on less land. Sometimes that means that we have to have more animals on one farm so that we can be more efficient in caring for the animals.

There are benefits to that. Did you know that bigger farms with lots and lots of animals often employ their own veterinarian? That means that animals can be cared for faster when they are sick or injured.

Like any other business owner, farmers want their business to grow. And it’s really expensive to get started farming. So sometimes when one farmer dies and doesn’t have an heir that wants to farm, a neighboring farmer will buy or rent that land. This benefits that neighboring farmer because they can get more use out of their farming equipment. For example, a new combine can cost $300,000 or more. If a farmer can use it on 500 acres of land instead of 350 acres of land, it is going to help offset that cost (it would take a long time to pay that off, this is just an example). Many farmers buy used equipment, and a used combine can still cost more than $100,000. And farmers can’t share their equipment, either, because there are just a few weeks in which crops can be harvested, and those few weeks happen at the same time for everybody. So it makes sense for a farmer to want to farm more land. Because of that and because of our efficiency with machinery such as combines is why we have bigger farms today.

My beef with Chipotle isn’t that they prefer organic foods or antibiotic-free meat or source ingredients locally- that is their choice. It is that they use advertising to drive misconceptions in agriculture. Their entire campaign is based of off fear tactics, as seen in the YouTube video Scarecrow and in their new Hulu series Farmed and Dangerous (I posted last week on this, and you can view that here). But they do have a point- they want to start a conversation. Ask a farmer if you have questions about where your food comes from.

Let’s have a conversation.