Chipotle nixes GMO food

[thecrazyscot]

Chipotle will no longer utilize ingredients containing GMOs.

Article.

I find this silly. The weight of scientific evidence clearly suggests that GMOs are not harmful.

But what about those studies suggesting that GMOs are harmful?

A couple of those do exist. It’s important to look at them carefully, with an open mind. It’s also important to do the same with the hundreds of studies suggesting that GMOs aren’t harmful. When you consider the evidence in sum, the products out there look pretty darn safe.

Source.

 

[warpus]

Company that makes food for hipsters jumps on trend that many hipsters support. Makes sense.

(Then again, maybe I'm wrong about Chipotle being favoured by hipsters. We don't have them here.)

 

[Wolfbeckett]

This is marketing anyway because almost all of Chipotle's food was already GMO free. I've heard the corn used for their taco tortillas have been GMO corn, but other than that I'm pretty sure there were already GMO free. This is just them wanting to cash in on a modern food fad.

Which is fine, I love Chipotle so as long as they don't raise their prices too much they've still got my business.

By the way, just to make my personal position clear from the beginning, I am pro-GMO but not necessarily pro-US-patent-laws-in-relation-to-genes.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Maybe, but I love Chipotle, and I am definitely not a hipster

And yes, I think patent laws are a problem for GMOs, but GMOs themselves are of tremendous benefit.

 

[Bootstoots]

Company that makes food for hipsters jumps on trend that many hipsters support. Makes sense.

(Then again, maybe I'm wrong about Chipotle being favoured by hipsters. We don't have them here.)

My thoughts exactly. Apparently they've determined that the niche they've carved out would be supportive of a public announcement that they're not using GMOs. Of course there's nothing problematic about GMOs from a safety perspective, but that's not why they're making this decision. You have to work with the customer base you've got, irrationality and all.

 

[Gucumatz]

Makes sense considering who their market is. Chipotle's food is a joke, never understood how people actually ever want to go eat there

 

[thecrazyscot]

Because it tastes good?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Maybe, but I love Chipotle, and I am definitely not a hipster

And yes, I think patent laws are a problem for GMOs, but GMOs themselves are of tremendous benefit.

I am pretty far from the category of hipster also, and I like Chipotle too. In my area they out-compete stuff like Moe's on price and I prefer their spicy steak, so they win. You definitely see a hipster element in them though.

This news makes me think a little less of them actually, but not enough to alter my reasoning for going there.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I can't think of any other restaurant I can go to that's near my work where 8 bucks buys me food that's as good as Chipotle.

 

[Gucumatz]

Anybody can outcompete Moe's though, thats not saying much.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Anybody can outcompete Moe's though, thats not saying much.

To each their own. I don't like sushi, even the supposedly good stuff. It doesn't suit my preferences, but I know a lot of people who love it. More power to them. I don't feel any particular incentive to defend the chain but don't see the reason to knock it based on preference either.

The GMO issue is just silly though. I get why they're doing it but it still kind of annoys me.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

The GMO issue is just silly though. I get why they're doing it but it still kind of annoys me.

Yeah that's pretty much where I'm at. This isn't enough to put me off Chipotle cause I gots to have my burrito bowls but I'm sick of this anti-GMO nonsense generally.

 

[warpus]

When I first saw a Chiptole ad during a hockey game, I was like.. "Does it say Chipotle on the ice?" to my friends. "I'm pretty sure that said Chipotle". And they thought I was pulling their legs.. Well, there it was, we all saw it later. "Isn't chipotle just like.. a flavour?", we wondered.. "A Chipotle advocacy group? How can that make sense for a flavour?".. "It's gotta be some weird American thing"

Eventually we figured out it's a restaurant.

 

[Whomp]

It's in the perception that consumers want to eat simpler foods they perceive as healthy. Non GMO is one of the fastest growing label trends. Considering 90% of corn and soy grown in the U.S. is GMO this was no small feat.

The kids in my house prefer Chipotle over all the fast food options.

 

[Antilogic]

Also a Chipotle consumer here, I eat burritos from various shops including theirs about 4 times a week.

My #short #take: whatever, Chipotle is adopting a trend that is appealing amongst their customer base. I generally treat "studies" produced by industries with a grain of salt, especially after the tobacco industry's deliberately destructive effort in the public discourse. But GMOs and individual health aren't a hill I intend to die on because focusing on this part of the "GMO debate" misses the biggest long-term problem with widespread adoption: issues like the ecological impact and elevated risk of widespread crop failure.

 

[thecrazyscot]

And what exactly is the ecological impact?

I can see greater risk of widespread crop failure if (a) current non-GMO use a wide variety of strains now and (b) everyone adopted the same GMO strain for the same crop. But (a) there's not that much variety already and (b) there's no reason to think everyone would adopt the same strain, as GMO by definition would allow for multiple strains, AND would be able to adapt more quickly by design to blights.

 

[civvver]

I have never had chipotle cus they aren't by my house, but there are several qdoba's and they are all amazing. I don't care about GMOs or gluten free food (which tastes like crap), the majority of science says they are fine, just like vaccines are fine, and so on and so on. Nearly every study that gets people up in arms about crap gets discredited by the scientific community a couple years later but it still cited as evidence for why something is bad. These bad studies have very long lasting effects. I think qdoba advertises anti biotic free chicken, or was it a sub place? I really don't remember, that's how little it means to me.

Anyway, they taste good not cus they're organic or non-GMO but because they make food fresh without a ton of preservatives. Nothing tastes better than fresh meats and veggies, freshly fried corn chips and steamed tortillas. It's not just these resteraunts either, look at how five guys and other burger joints are exploding while mcdonald's and burger king sales stagnate. People want fresh food cooked to order, whether it's healthy or not, and in general it only costs a few bucks more. A single burger and fries from five guys is around $10 which seems like a lot until you consider a big mac meal is close to $7 at most locations now.

 

[BvBPL]

I prefer Moe's.

Does Chipotle have a stance on rbgh in its dairy products?

 

[kramerfan86]

Scientifically I struggle to think of a way GMOs would be reasonably harmful, deserves more study obviously but this panic over them being the devil with absolutely no evidence is silly.

 

[uppi]

And yes, I think patent laws are a problem for GMOs, but GMOs themselves are of tremendous benefit.

Are they? Currently the only commercial use they have is to enable farmers to overuse glyphosates, thereby breeding glyphosate-resistant weeds in the process.

There could be beneficial applications, but the greed of GMO proponents has given them a bad name.