The week in review:  In the press release ahead of last week’s free screenings of the documentary “Food, Inc.,” Chipotle CEO Steve Ells said:

“I hope that all our customers see this film.  The more they know about where their food comes from, the more they will appreciate what we do.”

It’s an admirable goal – with ever more perfect information about how their food is raised and grown, more and more consumers will opt to buy food that is ethically produced.

Unfortunately, it’s a goal that Chipotle has failed to achieve.  In fact, it seems that there are limits on just how much Chipotle would like you to know about where its food comes from, and those limits are strictly enforced.

As many readers of this site already know, Fair Food activists appeared at Chipotle-sponsored screenings across the country to inform moviegoers about the brutal labor conditions in Florida’s tomato fields.   They also invited audiences to sign a letter calling Chipotle out for refusing to join with the CIW in a genuine partnership to improve labor conditions for Florida’s farmworkers.  The letter has been signed by more than two dozen well-known food justice writers and activists, including the director and co-producer of “Food, Inc.,” Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser, respectively.

But at several theaters, CIW supporters were met by unhappy Chipotle representatives who – and there’s really no other way to put this — did their best to muzzle them.  Nowhere was their reception more inhospitable than in Denver, Chipotle’s hometown, where company representatives got CIW supporters thrown out of the theater.  But it wasn’t only there.  Fair Food activists were harassed in several others cities, including Baltimore, Washington DC, and Kansas City, where one CIW supporter was actually reduced to tears.

The chatter on food and social justice blogs since has been non-stop (see the latest here).  For a week after the screenings, PR blowback was in full effect for Chipotle, and for good reason.  You can’t ask consumers to seek out information about the story behind their food and then silence activists who want to provide it.  If Chipotle has nothing to hide, why was it showing farmworker advocates the door?

Where to go from here: So, what are the lessons from last week’s debacle?  Let’s assume that Chipotle is sincere about its commitment to “Food with Integrity.”  Let’s assume that Chipotle truly wants to be the leader in supply chain accountability with respect to human rights in the restaurant industry.

If those things are true, then why in the world would Chipotle not seek to forge a true and respectful partnership with the CIW?

If the folks at Chipotle were experts on farm labor issues in Florida, then their refusal to work with the CIW might make some sense.  But Chipotle clearly has a lot to learn on the subject.  Case in point: While the CIW was helping federal authorities investigate and prosecute the latest slavery case, in which crews held in slavery picked tomatoes for the Immokalee-based tomato giant Six L’s, Chipotle was buying tomatoes from Six L’s.  True, Chipotle eventually stopped buying tomatoes from Six L’s, but only after the CIW informed them about the company’s relationship to the slavery case.

So, practically speaking, Chipotle’s best hope for eliminating farm labor abuses in it supply chain lies in working with the CIW, with the workers who are in the fields every day.  Chipotle simply cannot go it alone and expect to achieve the same results.

But it’s more than that.  You see, philosophically speaking, people are not pigs. You can raise standards for pigs, but to raise farm labor standards, you have to do it with farmworkers.

And that means that the human beings whose fundamental rights are violated on a daily basis in Florida’s fields must be an equal and active part of the solution.

It’s pretty simple, really.

We believe Chipotle can and should be the leader in the fast-food industry for human rights, as well as animal rights.  That means listening to criticism, giving workers a voice in the workplace, and going beyond verbal promises to end brutal working conditions in the tomato fields of Florida.

For some reason Chipotle still refuses to do what other companies committed to sustainability — Whole Foods, Bon Appetit – have done: work with the CIW to define industry-leading standards for farmworker rights.  And Chipotle’s behavior falls short even when compared to its mainstream rivals in the fast-food industry, like Taco Bell, Burger King, and McDonald’s.  How will Chipotle’s customers feel when they know about those facts?

Mr. Ells, it’s never too late to reverse a bad decision.  We’re ready when you are.