One thing we can all agree on: Chipotle’s latest ad, “The
Scarecrow” is depressing.
Kudos to their amazing marketing company- you achieved your
purpose, using purely imagination to sway choices outside the realm of fact.
In this video we see a factory worker getting brief glimpses
behind the curtain. He sees chickens tripling
in size after an injection and dairy cows trapped in boxes being milked
nonstop. Each task is completed by
red-eyed robots, hidden from the public.
At every turn he is confronted by a crow (generally used to signify
deceit or death.) But wait! There is hope- the scarecrow sees a pepper growing
on a real live plant! He is inspired and
prepares vegetables into a burrito, which he sells from an alley in the city.
To me this video is sad because it will captivate millions
of people into believing flat out lies, created through pure imagination. Facts that disagree with many ideas
suggested in this video:
1. Dairy cows are milked 2-3 times per day because
they MUST be. If they are not, they will
be in pain. Just ask the breastfeeding
mother of any newborn what it feels like when their baby doesn’t want to eat-
not good.
2.
Chickens are bigger than they used to be due to
more efficient diets and improved genetics.
These genetics are obtained through practices as old as Mendel’s peas
(if you recall jr. high biology.) Just
as a child fed nutritional food grows better than one fed candy and empty
sugars, so does a chicken. No chicken you ever eat will have been injected by
antibiotics or hormones.
| Improvement in diet have resulted in dramatic improvements in growth Source: J. Sell, Iowa State University (See more information at http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/printpoultry.html) |
3.
Pesticide use has decreased since the
introduction of biotech crops. Biotech
crops have been bred to be more resistant to problems chemicals would otherwise
be used to control.
4.
98% of farms are owned by families who use
technology in order to get their job done safely, efficiently, and to provide
the safest food supply in the world.
5.
Economically, one person showing up with a truck
bed full of vegetables to sell one burrito out of an alley cannot make a living
to support himself, let alone a family.
If he is, the little boy buying the burrito better have really deep
pockets.
Is agriculture really hidden? For those that want to be informed, the
information is readily available. Check
out Tyson’s website which details specifics on how their food is produced. http://www.tysonfoods.com/Our-Story/The-Making-of-a-Meal.aspx
. They are not alone in publishing their practices.
Yes, agriculture today is automated. But is that bad? There is an idea that agriculture should just
be “like the good old days.” In a world
that has evolved so drastically, do we really expect producers to isolate
themselves from the benefits of technology?
How would you feel if someone said you couldn’t use the copy machine at
work anymore because it “wasn’t like the good old days” when we wrote
everything by hand?
This video was created
to play on people’s emotions.
If you want facts,
watch a video that was created to inform such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCmWQcyAN5U,
not one meant to sell you something.
The song used in the video, “Pure Imagination” with an added somber twist,
is an interesting choice. This song came
from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and was probably selected due
to its haunting melody and association with a “factory.”
Personally, I remember the movie Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory and specifically this song as inspiring, not devastating. It is a song about ingenuity and creating a
world of prosperity. (It is played
during the part of the movie when they first see the candy room where everything
is edible.)
This is a perfect song to depict today’s agriculture-
exciting and inspiring and full of wonder.
Production has increased 360% since 1950. That takes creativity, ingenuity, and inspired
people working hard for a purpose they believe in: feeding the world.
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