Full disclosure: I don’t eat fast food very often. But in lieu of an authentic Mexican restaurant or mom and pop burrito joint, I will happily eat at Chipotle. Like their marketing strategy suggests, their food actually tastes like real food. (Just don’t get me started on that sloppy dog food at Qdoba.) And arguably, best part of the Chipotle dining experience is their amazeballs guacamole, which is almost as good as the stuff I make myself. As such, this story coming out of Think Progress has me concerned. If we keep screwing up the environment, Chipotle is going to take away our guacamole. OH HELL NO.
“Increasing weather volatility or other long-term changes in global weather patterns, including any changes associated with global climate change, could have a significant impact on the price or availability of some of our ingredients,” the popular chain, whose Sofritas vegan tofu dish recently went national, said in its annual report released last month. “In the event of cost increases with respect to one or more of our raw ingredients we may choose to temporarily suspend serving menu items, such as guacamole or one or more of our salsas, rather than paying the increased cost for the ingredients.”
How can you even serve burritos without salsa or guacamole? Are we in Russia now? Next you’re going to try to sell me on a margarita without tequila in it.
The guacamole operation at Chipotle is massive. The company uses, on average, 97,000 pounds of avocado every day to make its guac — which adds up to 35.4 million pounds of avocados every year. And while the avocado industry is fine at the moment, scientists are anticipating drier conditions due to climate change, which may have negative effects on California’s crop. Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for example, predict hotter temps will cause a 40 percent drop in California‘s avocado production over the next 32 years.
Please, people. Do whatever you have to do. Ride your bicycles to work, get solar panels installed on your houses — anything you can do to do your part because we HAVE TO SAVE THE GUACAMOLE. Sure, there’s also saving the planet for your children and their children, and blah blah blah — but I think most of us can agree that burritos are kind of the top priority right now. Simply put, burritos are the best food and I will challenge anyone to a knife fight who doesn’t agree with me.
Via Think Progress