Retaliation For Trying To Go Non-GMO: Big Ag’s Many Friends In The MSM Take Potshots At Chipotle
It was a first in an industry where the bottom line is always the most important thing, back in 2013 when Chipotle announced that it would be sourcing all its ingredients from growers who were certified to only grow non-genetically modified crops. For a fast food chain to make such an announcement was tantamount to heresy: don’t these hippies understand that if it is cheaper, it is better?
In other words, being better for profits is the only kind of better that exists in the mind of shareholders and stock-watchers.
And of course there was and always will be an element of showmanship and marketing to such schemes; they are after all a business, and surely they felt they could make such a change without breaking the bank. And no doubt their marketing people had been watching trends among consumers showing that people increasingly want clean, non-GMO food. They surely calculated that such a change would have a positive effect on their image and thus their sales.
But the powers-that-be don’t appreciate people rocking the boat, especially not people who are supposed to be on their team–other corporations. Enter the mainstream media stories illustrating how horrible Chipotle is.
First the fast-casual chain had to grapple with E. coli and salmonella outbreaks which sent its stock plummeting and forced an intervention by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Then the money press gleefully jumped all over a lawsuit filed by a group of former Chipotle employees alleging labor violations such as being forced to work off the clock and having their time cards changed retroactively to lower labor costs. But it was the delighted tone of most mainstream financial news coverage that was the real giveaway here.
“This case,” wrote one reporter for CNN Money, “regardless of the eventual ruling, chips away at the second pillar of Chipotle’s carefully constructed image. In the same way that ‘Food with Integrity’ doesn’t mean much following a months-long food safety scandal, Chipotle’s employee-friendly policies are undermined by these allegations. With customers already having one good reason to avoid the company’s restaurants, this lawsuit will only make Chipotle’s recovery more difficult. The financial impact will be minor. It’s the additional blemish on the brand that will sting the most.”
Oh my, you can just smell the smug rolling off the page, can’t you?
And such sincere tut-tutting concern over Chipotle’s image, when it is clear that the writer couldn’t be happier to see those uppity anti-GMO hippies get taken down a peg.
Indeed, some have speculated that the entire E. coli outbreak at Chipotle was manufactured, bioterrorism unleashed on the chain in retaliation for daring to go against the GMO party line.
The strain of E. coli that was found in their restaurants was exceedingly rare, for one thing, E. coli 026 to be exact. Not only that, despite a multi-state FDA investigation spanning months, they were never able to pinpoint the source of the infection.
Think about that next time you hear about an E. coli outbreak linked to a type of lettuce or sprouts or fruit. They ALWAYS figure out where it came from, there is always a source.
So how did this rare, sometimes deadly form of E. coli find its way into Chipotles across the country?
Even if there is no solid proof the dark army of pro-GMO soliders deliberately poisoned Chipotle customers, there is no doubt that the MSM and its corporate patrons were relieved when Chipotle’s anti-GMO crusade had the wind knocked out of its sails.
After all we can’t have the peasants deciding what’s in their best interests on their own; that’s for the corporate masters to decide.
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Pro-GMO Mainstream Media Continues Vicious Attacks On Chipotle After Decision to Go Non-GMO