Chipotle CEO Steve Ells challenged to debate on merits of Campaign for Fair Food by Kellogg Food and Society Fellow!
Will the promoter of “Food with Integrity” answer the call?
Plus, check out an exclusive video (below) from Sunday’s huge March for Farmworker Justice!
Laying down a virtual gauntlet before Chipotle CEO Steve Ells, Kellogg Food and Society Fellow Sean Sellers has launched a public challenge — in earnest — to debate the merits of the Campaign for Fair Food with the man who invented the slogan “Food with Integrity” for his 900-restaurant burrito chain. Posting on the widely-read sustainable food/ environmental blog grist.org (“Steve Ells, will you accept the ‘Chipotle Challenge’?,” 12/9/09), Sellers writes:
| “’Of course I’m not in favor of slavery! But signing an agreement [with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers] does not actually change those conditions for farmworkers,’ Steve Ells, CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, gibed in front of an audience of 250 at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Business on November 19. ‘I mean, they just don’t see the bigger picture,’ he continued. ‘To change the fast-food paradigm is huge. We’re trying to do the right thing.’Ells’ defensive posture came in immediate response to a question posed by Marina Saenz-Luna, a staff member of Just Harvest USA, who works closely with the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Since 2006, the grassroots farmworker organization has petitioned Chipotle – a leading fast-casual restaurant chain specializing in gourmet burritos – to enter into an agreement to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers. Four years later, farmworkers’ and consumers’ stomachs have soured in light of Chipotle’s persistent hostility towards the workers’ organization…
… It’s easy to shut down debate and mock earnest criticism when one stands alone at the podium and holds the microphone. But a closer reading of the recent exchange between Ells and Saenz-Luna belies a festering insecurity within Ells and his company over its chosen course of action. So here’s my challenge: Let’s have a real debate, Mr. Ells, at any public forum of your choosing. After all, if you can’t back up your position, then integrity demands that you change it.” |
He wraps up the post with a clarification: This is not a stunt. It’s a real challenge:
| “… The Chipotle ChallengeWhich brings us back to Steve Ells’ quotation at the top of this story: ‘But signing an agreement [with the CIW] does not actually change those conditions for farmworkers.’
Like most everything else Ells has said about the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food, this is entirely backwards, and so painfully wrong. But this time, his misinformation will not go unchallenged. Mr. Ells, consider this my formal challenge to a public debate on the merits of the Campaign for Fair Food. Have the conviction of your beliefs and join me for a debate – you name the time and place, anytime, anywhere. The clock is ticking.” |
You can read the entire Chipotle Challenge post here.
And for one last look at the exciting Publix protest and march in Lakeland last Sunday, click play on the video below: