YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

Major media call Chipotle's bluff

Fear or fact? When it comes to GMOs, some choose fear.

Chipotle, for example. They recently announced they would use no genetically modified ingredients in their menu items.

A storm of criticism and derision from major media outlets followed that announcement. The jeers came from Time, National Geographic, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post. Even that bastion of foodie publications, Mother Jones.

The big media boys took on the burrito king over three issues.

• There is no credible health or safety reason to remove genetically modified ingredients from our food. None.
• Chipotle is hypocritical because they are removing ingredients in some foods and leaving them in others.
• Taking GMOs out of the crop equation will lead to greater insecticide use.

Food fear marketing has long been a strategy for Chipotle. But Chipotle’s bluff has been called. The safety and environmental benefits of biotech are being written about.

And—at long last—reason is replacing fear in the GMO debate.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

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