Chipotle's Marketing

By now, I'm sure many of you have seen Chipotle's newest video release, the Scarecrow.  The video, released about a week ago, uses vivid imagery to decry "factory farming." Better still, there is an accompanying video game!

I like to eat at Chipotle, but this video comes across as a bit disingenuous.  The restaurant is now a multinational operation with 1400 stores.  Some of the images are downright misleading (e.g., chickens are not given growth hormones), and others are merely suggestive (e.g., that Chipotle is fundamentally different than other restaurant chains, when in many important respects it is not).  

I had a hard time distilling my thoughts on the matter, but fortunately the blogger (and hog farmer) Diana Prichard did all the hard work f in a series of thoughtful posts on the issue (part 1, part 2, part 3 is forthcoming).  

Her conclusion in part 2 was brilliant.

Why did it matter so much? Because Chipotle has exalted itself as an ethical corporation among the throngs of unethical corporations, but in The Scarecrow Chipotle sits atop a high horse of its own creation mocking the same qualities in others that its own behavior embodies. I don’t know about you, but I call that hypocrisy of the worst kind.

I chose the pictures in this post deliberately because green washing and transparency is a theme The Scarecrow broaches repeatedly. The Scarecrow stares at a factory wall painted to look like a farm, peers behind broken boards of an “all natural” poultry billboard to see a chicken being injected with… something. [Choptle's corporate spokesperson] himself told me that they’re interested in transparency in the food system, and argued they’re “not the ones championing “ag gag” laws that make it illegal to document what happens in our food system.”* Yet at the same time Chipotle is engaging in behavior we could easily coin “ethics washing.”

By elevating itself as an ethical company, but then turning around and only acting ethically when it benefits them Chipotle is ethics washing their own company and products. It would be more ethical to market their stores in such a way that is not blatantly inaccurate slander of farmers, but that won’t sell as many burritos so they have no interest. Not only is Chipotle misleading consumers on issues of agriculture and the food system, they’re misleading consumers on their own company’s principles and standards of conduct. Chipotle’s Scarecrow paints “a world of pure imagination,” indeed — one in which Chipotle is far more morally astute than they really are.

What do consumers think about Zilmax?

In our September food demand survey, FooDS, we added one question to see if people had heard or learned about the cattle feed additive Zilmax.  If you happened to miss the story, a couple of weeks ago, Tyson Foods announced it would stop buying cattle fed Zilmax, a popular feed additive (see here for one of 100s of stories on the issue) due to possible concerns over lameness issues in cattle.

Here is the question we asked over 1,000 US consumers, and the response categories

There have been several stories in the news in the past month about a livestock feed additive called Zilmax.  Which of the following statements about Zilmax is true? (Check all the apply.)

(1) Zilmax is a growth hormone (akin to Estrogen) used to make cattle grow faster.  

(2) Zilmax is an antibiotic (akin to Penicillin) used to ensure cattle are healthy and grow quickly. 

(3) Zilmax is a beta-agonist (akin to adrenaline) used to make cattle grow faster.  

(4) Zilmax is in the news because of food safety concerns. 

(5) Zilmax is in the news because of animal health concerns.

(6) Zilmax is in the news because of its effects on international trade.

(7) Zilmax is in the news because it is a promising new product. 

(8) I have never heard of Zilmax. 

The order of the response categories varied randomly across participants.  Respondents could check more than one option, so long as they did not check "I have never heard of Zilmax." 

Over 80% of participants stated they “have never heard of Zilmax”. Of those who had heard of Zilmax, the majority had mis-perceptions.  Over all respondents, 6.79% said it was a growth hormone and 6.37% said it was in the news due to food safety concerns. 

Only 3.23% correctly identified Zilmax as a Beta-agonist, and only 4.99% correctly identified recent news as relating to animal health.

Have you lost trust in the food system?

The September edition of the monthly food demand survey (FooDS) is now out.  In this post, I want to draw attention to two questions we added this time around which were suggested by my colleague Bailey Norwood.  

We asked a yes/no question: 

Can you think of a time when you felt that you lost trust in the food system?”

The good news that about 60% said "no" but that also means that, unfortunately, about 40%  said "yes."

For those people who said “yes”, we followed up with an open ended question:

Can you describe the exact circumstances that led to the loss in trust in the food system?

413 people typed responses.  I had a lot of fun reading through all the responses and trying to make sense of them. The first thing I did a simple keyword search.  

Below is the frequency of occurrence of different keywords among the responses, which I placed into different categories.

Some of the main keywords mentioned were:  GMOs (24), Mad Cow (24), recall (23), e coli (22), and price (20).  When you add the word "genetic" to "GMO" these two combined got a total of 34 mentions, by far the highest.  Biotechnology seems to be a big contributor to lost of trust in the food system.  That said (and as will be see momentarily), I think most of the statements people typed had something to do with food safety issues.  Here is the count of the number of times different words were mentioned.

Companies or Organizations

FDA (13), McDonalds (9), Monsanto (5), government (3), USDA (2) 

Technology Related Issues

GMO (24), hormone (26), pink slime (16), chemical (13), pesticide (11), genetic (10), antibiotic (9), clone (3), drug (3) 

Food Safety Related Issues

mad cow (24), recall (23), e coli (22), outbreak (18), salmonella (16), sick (15), food poisoning (13), illness (12), swine flu (6) bird flue (4) 

Miscellaneous issues

price (20), news (11), cost (10), documentary (6), China (6), Food inc (5), TV (3) 

Types of food

chicken (22), meat (17), beef (15) vegetable (15), lettuce (11), fruit (11), pork (4), spinach (4) cantalope (2), tomato (1)  

In addition to simply counting word mentions, I read each response and placed each one into one of eight different categories.

Below are the general categories, with the number of comments in the category, and a few representative responses.  I did not correct typos in respondents' answers.

Food Safety Related Issues (113 responses)

"during outbreak of e. coli"

"Hearing about diseases like bird flue and mad cow.  Tainted meat and produce."

"recently-yet another recall of bagged lettuce"

"The ecoli outbreak from a Taco Bell has made me think more of cooking at home and not eating out."

Technology Related Issues (74 responses) 

"hearing all the talk on tv about gmo foods."

"finding out about antibiotics and growth hormone use in livestock"

"When I learned that genetically engineered foods did not have to be labeled as such.  I felt very betrayed by by the food industry and the FDA."

"I used to buy ground beef but when I heard pink slim I stop buying it"

Issues related to food prices, market power or manipulation, or regulatory malfeasance (50 responses)

“I've never reallly had any trust in the food sys. I feel that the gov't and certain officals have a vested stake in the food industry and therefore can't be trusted to make decisions in the best interest of American citzens.”

“$6/lbs for bacon this is out of control”

“McDonalds food and realizing Monsanto owns EVERYTHING”

“The cost of staples like rice, flour and cooking oil. These items should be much cheaper to buy in bulk than they currently are. It's disappointing.”

Personal experience (mostly stories of food poisoning) (34 responses)

“I got food poisoning from a Mexican restaurant”

“My husband and I went out to eat at a restaurant, and the chicken he ate ended up being bad. He got food poisioning and was in the ER overnight with vomitting and dirrahea constantly. It was the worst thing ever!”

“found some hair in canned food”

“Had a blizzard and our grocery store had empty shelves after one day. Scary”

Animal Welfare Issues (25 responses)

“About 40 years ago when i visited cattle and chicken farms,  I was shocked at how the animals were treated and the filthy conditions that they lived under.  haven't eatent meat since. 

“Especially hate the way they raise chickens.”

“When I found out the actual  conditions of factory farms.”

General media (15 responses)

“I saw the documentary called "Food, Inc."”

 “I saw the movie, I forget what it is called, but it showed the farm process and the uncleanliness of the system. It made me lose hope in all the farms across the U.S. and question them.”

 “an article in the media”

Health or Nutritional Issues (10 responses)

“Food that is healthy and safe is more expensive than food that is unhealthy and questionable so those who are stuck on a budget have to eat sodium packed food low in nutrients for a cheaper meal i.e. ramen, hamburger helper etc.”

 “Nothing really tasted right as the time nor was anything really healthy.”

 “when i was overweight despite of healthy eating habits”

Other Issues (or all issues) (39 responses)

 “Introduction of too many chemicals, preservatives, hormones, GMOs, etc., increased introduction of fast foods, fewer organic fruits & veggies at most grocery stores. Inflation and increasing costs of organic & fresh whole foods. I never eat beef, seldom eat pork”

“When I heard about chicken coming from china.”

“the recent odd sizes of chicken parts. never seen small parts big parts, thought chickens grew the same size. don't trust red meat at all.”

“The love In making the food is gone they dnt make food with love anymore”

 “watched the documentary: food inc. or something like that. Just showed of how genetically modified food was used in the production of food.  /  / Also the documentary about McDonalds. It is a little old, but still the same thing applies. I have since cut fast food to a minimum...  “

“Also when farmers or workers in the farm are not paid what they deserve”

 “When I found out that horse meat was being substituted for beef in some cases.”

Interesting or curious responses

 “i read how they use chemical to breed their animals.”

 “When I first heard about the brain found in the chicken at KFC”

 “Finding out that I am 25 years old, perfectly healthy, but (highly likely) due to the GMO's in foods I had been eating, I am infertile.”

 “My dad became severely allergic to chicken, so we only purchased "organic" chicken.  Some places claim being organic, but he was still affected by it! Only from local, organic places did we find chicken that didn't cause him to break out into hives”

 “When the local stores stopped buying locally.”

 “when i heard kfc was making chickens without beacks”

Effect of GMOs in the Developing World

To hear many anti-GMO activists talk, one would think farmers are merely whims of greedy agribusinesses.  They have no power or choice to deny Monsanto.  In the developing world, we hear such outlandish assertions as GMOs causing suicide (see this paper for a thorough debunking of that claim).

The truth is that farmers adopted GMOs because they thought it would make them money, save them time, and improve their health and that of the environment.  Yes, Monsanto has made some money along the way, but farmers have benefited too (so too have consumers I might add).   

For the latest evidence on that front, I ran across this research by Kousesr and Qaim in the journal Agricultural Economics.  Here's the abstract:

Data from a farm survey and choice experiment are used to value the benefits of Bt cotton in Pakistan. Unlike previous research on the economic impacts of Bt, which mostly concentrated on financial benefits in terms of gross margins, we also quantify and monetize health and environmental benefits associated with technology adoption. Due to lower chemical pesticide use on Bt cotton plots, there are significant health advantages in terms of fewer incidents of acute pesticide poisoning, and environmental advantages in terms of higher farmland biodiversity and lower soil and groundwater contamination. Farmers themselves value these positive effects at US$ 79 per acre, of which half is attributable to health and the other half to environmental improvements. Adding average gross margin gains of US$ 204 results in aggregate benefits of US$ 283 per acre, or US$ 1.8 billion for the total Bt cotton area in Pakistan.

Drink more water?

According to one article, Michelle Obama has come out with a new campaign to solve our nation's health problems: 

I’ve come to realize that if we were going to take just one step to make ourselves and our families healthier, probably the single best thing we could do is to simply drink more water,” Obama said in a press release. “That’s it – it’s really that simple. Drink just one more glass of water a day and you can make a real difference for your health, your energy, and the way you feel.

This really stains credibility.  The "single best thing" to make yourself healthier is definitely NOT drinking more water.  There is no good scientific evidence that drinking more water has any effect at all on health.