Naturally Delicious

Scott Hardie | June 5, 2015
What do you think of food brands like Nestlé, Frito Lay, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kraft announcing that they'll use all-natural ingredients? Every week seems to bring another such announcement.

Samir Mehta | June 5, 2015
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Aaron Shurtleff | June 6, 2015
I also went to Chipotle today oddly. I am more concerned about the lack of pork (I want my carnitas!!). If the food tastes the same, I don't care much either way.

Steve West | June 6, 2015
I agree. As long as the taste remains the same - I could use as much artificial growth hormone as I can get.

Scott Hardie | June 7, 2015
Chipotle's success and brand identity as a "healthier" alternative has really lit a fire under other restaurants, who are racing to convert their ingredients the same way. Personally, I think Chipotle's success is a fad that will come to an end sooner or later, but I applaud any positive changes that they inspire in the food business.

However, I'm troubled by how much ground the anti-GMO movement has gained, which now seems to have reached a critical tripping point where GMO food is disappearing from restaurants and groceries en masse. It's no longer restricted to the fringes; it's gone mainstream. The science is overwhelmingly clear that GMOs are safe, and yet people are convinced that they're bad for you and/or bad for the environment. It's similar to climate change denial (and others have noted the connection), except that climate change denial is fueled by the energy industry's aggressively lobbying and marketing and promoting false studies that create a lot of confusion; similarly deep-pocketed and shady corporations are behind GMO technology and yet the current of misinformation is flowing the other direction. And it has a snowball effect: The more widely the movement is accepted, the more legitimate it seems, and the more people are confused, and the more widely it becomes accepted.

Scott Hardie | July 17, 2015
Slate just ran a comprehensive takedown of the anti-GMO movement. It's good reading.

Scott Hardie | January 9, 2016
Maybe it's out there and I just haven't seen it, but now that Chipotle's customers have suffered food poisoning en masse by norovius, salmonella, and E. coli, I'd really like to see some kind of public dialogue along the lines of "huh, maybe avoiding food that was engineered for public safety was kind of stupid of us." I know that Chipotle's sales are way down as a result of the illnesses, but I wonder whether anti-GMO fervor in general has lost any of its support after this.

Samir Mehta | January 9, 2016
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Scott Hardie | January 10, 2016
Agreed. Facts don't seem to matter much.

Steve West | January 10, 2016
Agreed as well. People get what they want not necessarily what's good for them.