Chipotle: Greenwashing or just green?

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The above picture is from a local Chipotle.  The poster reads:

“I hope all of our customers see this movie. The more they know about where their food comes from the more they’ll appreciate about what we do.”

If you go to the website, Chipotle urges you to see a free screening of Food, Inc.  I can’t wait to see  the movie, but does Chipotle really qualify as a fast food chain that that should get props from Michael Pollan or Eric Schlossler?  Or is this another example of a corporation greenwashing?

There is no doubt that Chipotle is way ahead of most fast food.  Check this blog out for more info about what the chain is doing right.

But all isn’t right.  I’m sure the workers who make the burritos are paid nowhere near a living wage.  More so,  Chipotle refuses to have labor standards for its tomato growers.  What kind of message is that? Does Chipotle really care that are pigs are cheated humanely but do not care  about the labor rights and civil rights  of the actual people who pick the tomatoes for their salsas?

McDonald’s hamburgers and Chipotle’s burritos earn about 45 cents for every 32-pound container of tomatoes they pick, a subpoverty wage that has remained stagnant for almost 30 years.

Here is a recent summary of the situation from the The Nation:

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has made great organizing strides and has succeeded in convincing numerous commercial giants, including both Burger King and Taco Bell, to increase wages, benefits and observe a strict set of guidelines outlining workplace safety rules.

Chipotle, however, the country’s fastest-growing fast food chain, has resisted efforts by farm-workers demanding a lasting commitment to ending the brutal exploitation in Florida’s fields.

Filed under: Food Independence Day, Immigration, Mexico, POlitics, agriculture, community organizing, farming, film, human rights, progressive , unions, social justice, labor, organic farming, human rights, living wage, chipotle, the nation, michael pollan, eric schlossler, food, inc, agriculture, food standards, the labor movement, tomatos, immokalee workers, immokalee, florid, florida, farmworkers, workers, taco bell

Indianapolis Food Independence Day Wrap UP!

Food Independence Day 2009 flyer

On Thursday, July 2, Earth House and Lockerbie Central United Methodist hosted Food Independence Day here in Indianapolis.  It was the first of what will hopefully be an annual event.   Mark your calendars for Thursday, July 1, 2010!

Indianapolis City Council member Jose Evans (left) talks with Slow Food Indy members Todd Jameson (middle), and Ed and Theresea Stites at Indianapolis' Food Independence Day Celebration. July 2, 2009

It was just a great night.  We had fifteen different sponsors, an Indianapolis city council member show up, Jose Evans,  and over 250 people come through the door.  We screened  the film THE GARDEN and the movie’s director Scott Kennedy was in attendance.  He left impressed with what Indianapolis food activists were trying to do.

We got two great write ups in the local papers.  Here is the article from Metromix and from Nuvo.  I really liked this line from Metromix/Indianapolis Star reporter Jenny Elig:

[Scott] Hamilton comes at the invitation of Mike Oles, Lockerbie Methodist lay leader and founder of the Earth House Collective Film Series — which is quickly becoming the city’s premiere showcase for screenings and discussions of socially conscious films.

The question and answer session with Scott Kennedy was also great. I will post footage from the Q and A when it gets online.  But, here is Scott answering questions.  The movie got a standing ovation.

Oscar nominated filmmaker Scott Kennedy answers questions about THE GARDEN. July 1, 2009, Indianapolis, IN.

Filed under: Christians, Earth House, Food Independence Day, Indiana, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, POlitics, Thursday Night Film Festival, agriculture, church, city council, community, community organizing, economy, emergent church, facebook, film , Earth House, Earth House Film Forum, film, film reviews, Food Independence Day, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis City Council, Indianapolis Star, Jose Evans, layleader, lockerbie central united methodist, Metromix, Mike Oles, MIke Oles III, NUVO, Oscars, Scott Hamilton, Scott Kennedy Hamilton, Slow Food, Slow Food Indianapolis, socially conscious films, The Garden, Thursday Night Film Festival

Swine Flu and factory farms and the corporate media

Time Magazine tells us “Swine Flu: Don’t Blame the Pigs.”   The article is interesting and gives a brief history of the influenza virus and its relation to livestock.  

All of this made the flu virus a tenacious foe from the outset, but once humans invented farming and learned to cultivate animals, we made a bad situation much worse. All at once, chickens, ducks and pigs — which never had much to do with one another — began living cheek to jowl in high numbers and often unsanitary conditions. Farm families and people working in live markets then began mingling with the critters. That’s a pathogenic speed blender, and the viruses have taken full advantage of it. “It’s really an ecological issue,” says Daszak.

The problem is that the article never mentions the rise of factory farming as an incubator of some scary disease.   Wow, our corporate media doesn’t really want to go there.  Though no clear links have been established yet, but circumstantial evidence points to a strong possibility that the roots of this pandemic can be found in giant U.S. operated factory farms in Mexico.  Here is one blogger’s take:  

The cause is not yet known, but many speculate that this deadly virus could be linked to factory farming. When the CDC and the USDA conduct their investigation in Mexico, they will most likely start with the industrial scale pig farms (“confined animal feeding operations” or CAFOs) that have been growing in numbers over the last decade. With the draw of cheap labor and land, American pig conglomerates have been opening up giant swine CAFOs in Mexico, including dozens around Mexico City, Puebla and Veracruz (where the outbreak is believed to have started).

Filed under: Mexico, agriculture, environment, farming, flu pandemic, swine flu , CDC, confined animal feeding operations, corporation, disease, environment, factory farm, factory farmin, farming, flu, hogs, influenza, Mexico, pandemic, pigs, Smithfield, swine flu, Time magazine, United States