Chipotle, in a move to meet consumer demand, will be removing (some) GMOs from their menu and switching from sustainable ingredients to “sustainable” ingredients. To better serve their customers “values” they will be sourcing cooking oil from sunflowers bred through chemical mutagensis and grown with what is apparently the anti-GMO movement’s favorite herbicide, imazamox in place of soy or canola oils grown with glyphosate. As well, they will be sourcing corn produced with the herbicide atrazine and the insecticide chlorpyrifos* rather than the herbicide glyphosate and the Bt trait. **
Well, the change is just for the food, not the sodas, where they make their money. Those will still have high fructose corn syrup made from GMO corn. But all in all, a an exciting victory for the “sustainable” food movement, as well as Syngenta and BASF.
* You may have heard bad things about chlorpyrifos, but don’t get your NPR tote bag in a twist, it’s mostly just dangerous for farm workers, you can eat Chipotle your heart’s content and not have to worry about it. Just know that your made up fear of Bt corn is WAY more important the actual health of farm workers and their kids.
** All of those pesticides have resistance and “superweed” issues, but not the “bad” kind.
I prefer the burritos at Da Crack in Poipu…where they are made with chicken, fish, beef, pork, or ‘meat’–which I interpret as wild pig or goat–and order just to have a sense of adventure…because I’m not afraid of food. (I’m only afraid of organic, which has really killed people!)
Those chemicals are also going into the environment so no not just the farm workers will,be affected. They are just the first to be.
They don’t get used in large enough quantities to pose much risk except to those with the greatest exposure. But I was being facetious about not caring. Farm worker exposure to pesticides is a big deal to me. What’s not a big deal to me is unfounded affluent consumer hysteria about pesticide residues, except so much as it’s a distraction and impediment to real sustainable reform.