Chipotle Commercial

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by cliffdweller

Yeah, that stuff isn't Mexican food. Taco Bell, Chipotle, what have you...not Mexican. Actually, that goes double for Taco Bell.

Agreed.

Chipotle is not American-Mexican in the traditional sense - no sloppy sauces drowing your food, nothing is deep-fried, no orange cheeses, no nachos, no enchiladas, flautas, chimichangas - nothing you'd usually think of when you go for Mexican food.

It's basically a burrito bar. You choose white or brown rice flavored with lime and cilantro, then you choose vegetarian black beans, or non-vegetarian pinto beans (cooked with pork), you can add fajitas - which is literally the sauteed peppers and onions. From there you choose a meat if you want it - barbacoa, marinated pork, steak or chicken; after that is salsa - they have roasted corn, pico, tomatillo and some red chili stuff that looks like sriracha; and finally sour cream, cheese and guacamole that is made like it should be - avocado, lime, serrano peppers and onions, and nothing else.

They can put all of this into tacos as well.

Not traditional Tex-Mexican, but not un-authentic either.

I grew up in Michigan, but now live in Colorado. I believe we have the best Mexican food outside of Mexico here (Chipotle not included).

[Livia]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Chipotle was purchased by McDonalds because they were successful, but not conceived by them. Chipotle operates as a completely independent entity. Chipotle was started in Denver, where I live. Their very first location is still open, just down the street from my house. Their food has not changed since they started. Not. One. Bit.

Kraft owned Phillip Morris for a long time too, but that doesn't mean there were cigarettes in their food products or that Kraft was trying to find a way to make mayonnaise addictive.

I think you missed my point. I find it ironic that McDonald's (known for being junk food and was really the main character in "Supersize Me") happens to own Chipotle. An investment firm is not the first thing most people would think of when they think of McDonald's.

I get your point with the Kraft/Phillip Morris comparison, but I didn't mean to imply that McDonald's was secretly "poisoning" Chipotle's ingredients. However, where does McDonald's get their meat and produce from? Isn't it ironic, don't ya think?

Is Chipotle paying you to be their spokesperson? I personally try to avoid chain restaurants whenever possible and prefer to go local, whether in my hometown or traveling. There are so many good Mexican restaurants in Austin, I can't eat it anywhere else. Not just Tex-Mex, but interior, Baja, etc. Can't do it...

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by Livia

Is Chipotle paying you to be their spokesperson? I personally try to avoid chain restaurants whenever possible and prefer to go local, whether in my hometown or traveling. There are so many good Mexican restaurants in Austin, I can't eat it anywhere else. Not just Tex-Mex, but interior, Baja, etc. Can't do it...

In Denver, Chipotle is local. They may be a national chain NOW, but they started as Denver eaterie, just blocks from my home.

I'm not a spokesperson, I just like their stance on food production, which is a cause very dear to me.

[HejiraNYC]

The Myth of Sustainable Meat
By JAMES E. McWILLIAMS
Published: April 12, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/op...able-meat.html

THE industrial production of animal products is nasty business. From mad cow, E. coli and salmonella to soil erosion, manure runoff and pink slime, factory farming is the epitome of a broken food system.

There have been various responses to these horrors, including some recent attempts to improve the industrial system, like the announcement this week that farmers will have to seek prescriptions for sick animals instead of regularly feeding antibiotics to all stock. My personal reaction has been to avoid animal products completely. But most people upset by factory farming have turned instead to meat, dairy and eggs from nonindustrial sources. Indeed, the last decade has seen an exciting surge in grass-fed, free-range, cage-free and pastured options. These alternatives typically come from small organic farms, which practice more humane methods of production. They appeal to consumers not only because they reject the industrial model, but because they appear to be more in tune with natural processes.

For all the strengths of these alternatives, however, they’re ultimately a poor substitute for industrial production. Although these smaller systems appear to be environmentally sustainable, considerable evidence suggests otherwise.

Grass-grazing cows emit considerably more methane than grain-fed cows. Pastured organic chickens have a 20 percent greater impact on global warming. It requires 2 to 20 acres to raise a cow on grass. If we raised all the cows in the United States on grass (all 100 million of them), cattle would require (using the figure of 10 acres per cow) almost half the country’s land (and this figure excludes space needed for pastured chicken and pigs). A tract of land just larger than France has been carved out of the Brazilian rain forest and turned over to grazing cattle. Nothing about this is sustainable.

Advocates of small-scale, nonindustrial alternatives say their choice is at least more natural. Again, this is a dubious claim. Many farmers who raise chickens on pasture use industrial breeds that have been bred to do one thing well: fatten quickly in confinement. As a result, they can suffer painful leg injuries after several weeks of living a “natural” life pecking around a large pasture. Free-range pigs are routinely affixed with nose rings to prevent them from rooting, which is one of their most basic instincts. In essence, what we see as natural doesn’t necessarily conform to what is natural from the animals’ perspectives.

The economics of alternative animal systems are similarly problematic. Subsidies notwithstanding, the unfortunate reality of commodifying animals is that confinement pays. If the production of meat and dairy was somehow decentralized into small free-range operations, common economic sense suggests that it wouldn’t last. These businesses — no matter how virtuous in intention — would gradually seek a larger market share, cutting corners, increasing stocking density and aiming to fatten animals faster than competitors could. Barring the strictest regulations, it wouldn’t take long for production systems to scale back up to where they started.

All this said, committed advocates of alternative systems make one undeniably important point about the practice called “rotational grazing” or “holistic farming”: the soil absorbs the nutrients from the animals’ manure, allowing grass and other crops to grow without the addition of synthetic fertilizer. As Michael Pollan writes, “It is doubtful you can build a genuinely sustainable agriculture without animals to cycle nutrients.” In other words, raising animals is not only sustainable, but required.

But rotational grazing works better in theory than in practice. Consider Joel Salatin, the guru of nutrient cycling, who employs chickens to enrich his cows’ grazing lands with nutrients. His plan appears to be impressively eco-correct, until we learn that he feeds his chickens with tens of thousands of pounds a year of imported corn and soy feed. This common practice is an economic necessity. Still, if a farmer isn’t growing his own feed, the nutrients going into the soil have been purloined from another, most likely industrial, farm, thereby undermining the benefits of nutrient cycling.

Finally, there is no avoiding the fact that the nutrient cycle is interrupted every time a farmer steps in and slaughters a perfectly healthy manure-generating animal, something that is done before animals live a quarter of their natural lives. When consumers break the nutrient cycle to eat animals, nutrients leave the system of rotationally grazed plots of land (though of course this happens with plant-based systems as well). They land in sewer systems and septic tanks (in the form of human waste) and in landfills and rendering plants (in the form of animal carcasses).

Farmers could avoid this waste by exploiting animals only for their manure, allowing them to live out the entirety of their lives on the farm, all the while doing their own breeding and growing of feed. But they’d better have a trust fund.

Opponents of industrialized agriculture have been declaring for over a decade that how humans produce animal products is one of the most important environmental questions we face. We need a bolder declaration. After all, it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all.

James E. McWilliams is the author of “Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly.”

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on April 13, 2012, on page A31 of the New York edition with the headline: The Myth of Sustainable Meat..

[markolas]

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but I will never be a vegetarian. I'd rather die happy at 50 than live to be 90 and miserable.

[markolas]

I thought Ed and Louie were both Republicans. Some of their posts over the last few days don't sound very Republican to me.

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

The Myth of Sustainable Meat
By JAMES E. McWILLIAMS
Published: April 12, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/op...able-meat.html

Of course animals bred to be factory farmed aren't going to be suitable for the grazing lifestyle. But an organic farmer would never even consider those breeds! Of course organic farming cannot sustain the quantities of meat most people consume - but that is the problem, not the methods these farmers use. No person needs to eat three pounds of meat a day. America doesn't need to eat 9 to 10 BILLION ANIMALS A YEAR. The planet doesn't need to eat 60 BILLION ANIMALS EVERY YEAR.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/food...list031604.cfm

Short list: What's Wrong with Factory Farming?


The intent of presenting this data is not to "demonize farmers, many of whom went into the business out of a desire to work with nature and be close to the land, and don't like what's going on any more than you or me. But something has happened to the way animals are treated in modern meat production that is a disgrace to the human spirit, and a violation of the ancient human-animal bond...

The process of rearing farm animals in the US has changed dramatically from the family farms of yesteryear. This reality, coupled with the exemption of farm animals from laws that forbid cruelty to animals, has produced a heartbreaking situation. More animals are subjected to more tortuous conditions in the US today than has ever occurred anywhere in world history. Never before have the choices of each individual been so important." John Robbins, The Food Revolution (2001)

Statistics*

* All statistics and information compiled from The Food Revolution by John Robbins (2001), Diet for a New America by John Robbins (1987), Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet and the Rainforest Action Network.

Excrement:

Production of excrement by total US human population: 12,000 pounds/second

Production of excrement by US livestock: 250,000 pounds/second (including 25 pounds of manure per cow per day)

Sewage systems in US cities: Common

Sewage systems in US feedlots: None

Amount of waste produced annually by US livestock in confinement operations which is not recycled: 1 billion tons

Where feedlot waste often ends up: In our water

Gallons of oil spilled by the Exxon-Valdez: 12 million

Gallons of putrefying hog urine and feces spilled into the New River in North Carolina on June 21, 1995, when a "lagoon" holding 8 acres of hog excrement burst: 25 million

Fish killed as an immediate result: 10-14 million

Antibiotic Resistance:

Antibiotics administered to people in the US annually to treat diseases: 3 million pounds

Antibiotics administered to livestock in the US annually for purposes other than treating disease: 24.6 million pounds

Antibiotics allowed in cow's milk: 80

Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13%

Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1988: 91%

Reason: Breeding of antibiotic resistant bacteria in factory farms due to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock

Response by entire European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: Ban

Response by American meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: Full and complete support

Numbers of Animals Slaughtered for Food in US:

Number of cows and calves slaughtered every 24 hours in the US: 90,000

Number of chickens slaughtered every minute in the US: 14,000

Food animals (not counting fish and other aquatic creatures) slaughtered per year in the US: 10 billion

Slaughterhouse:

Transcript of New York Times full page ad published June 22, 2001 detailing the horrors of our modern-day slaughterhouses. With 309-330 cows per hour coming by on the "disassembly" line, there are many who are still fully conscious with eyes wide open when skinned and cut apart. They die literally piece by piece.

Factory Farm Animals with Diseases from Intensive Conditions:

A report by the USDA estimates that 89% of US beef patties contain traces of the deadly E. coli strain. Reuters News Service 8/10/00

US pigs raised in total confinement factories where they never see the light of day until being trucked to slaughter: 65 million (total confinement factories are banned in Britain)

US pigs who have pneumonia at time of slaughter: 70%

Primary source of Campylobacter bacteria: Contaminated chicken flesh

People in the US who become ill with Campylobacter poisoning every day: More than 5,000

American turkeys sufficiently contaminated with Campylobacter to cause illness: 90%

Americans sickened from eating Salmonella-tainted eggs every year: More than 650,000

Americans killed from eating Salmonella-tainted eggs every year: 600

Increase in Salmonella poisoning from raw or undercooked eggs between 1976 and 1986: 600%

90% of US chickens are infected with leukosis -- chicken cancer -- at the time of slaughter.

Average lifespan of a dairy cow - 25 years; average lifespan when on a factory dairy farm - 4 years.

Water:

Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons

Water needed to produce 1 pound of meat: 2,500 gallons

Cost of hamburger meat if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by US taxpayers: $35/pound

When water shortages occur, citizens are often requested to not wash cars, water lawns and to use low-flow shower heads. However, cutting back on meat consumption would save much more water given that the water required to produce just ten pounds of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.

About 70% of the water used in the 11 western states is dedicated to the raising of animals for food.

Years until the Ogallala Aquifer runs dry (formed by glaciers, the largest underground lake in the world and source of fresh water beneath an area from Texas to South Dakota, and Missouri to Colorado): 30 to 50

The amount of water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a (Naval) destroyer. (Newsweek article "The Browning of America")

Advertising:

Amount spent annually by Kellogg's to promote Frosted Flakes: $40 million

Amount spent annually by the dairy industry on "milk mustache" ads: $190 million

Amount spent annually by McDonald's advertising its products: $800 million

Amount spent by the National Cancer Institute promoting fruits and vegetables: $1 million.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Of course animals bred to be factory farmed aren't going to be suitable for the grazing lifestyle. But an organic farmer would never even consider those breeds! Of course organic farming cannot sustain the quantities of meat most people consume - but that is the problem, not the methods these farmers use. No person needs to eat three pounds of meat a day. America doesn't need to eat 9 to 10 BILLION ANIMALS A YEAR. The planet doesn't need to eat 60 BILLION ANIMALS EVERY YEAR.

Cause and effect much? The reason why Americans eat a gazillion pounds of meat each year is because they can. Meat is heavily subsidized in terms of direct farmer assistance and subsidizing the production of corn and fresh water for meat producers. This is combined with an extremely powerful political lobby that has helped to make meat the centerpiece of every American meal and elevated its stature as one of the "four basic food groups." Accordingly meat is often cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. If the price of meat actually reflected its cost of production (supposedly $35 per pound of beef per the NY times op-ed), it would become a delicacy not unlike caviar. Indeed, meat is not a requirement for living, any more than chocolate or Cinnabons are. Meat, whether it is farmed "organically" or not, is just a bad idea.