October 8, 2013 - By this point I imagine everyone's seen this Chipotle ad, and despite misattributing the music soley to Fiona Apple this criticism is fairly apt. Buying (into) Chipotle('s message) doesn't really do much to affect the ethics of how animals are raised or crops are grown, and ultimately they're trying to sell you a product rather than taking action out of altruism.

I guess, none of this really has much to do with women's rights, despite the paralell I'm obviously trying to draw between individual rights of those most affected and lack of empathy among those making decisions about such rights which potentially applies to both scenarios. But there are a lot of scenarios to which that problem can also apply. I guess the more important question to ask is if this lack of empathy has greater adverse effects on society. I certainly believe that lack of female representation in the legislative process has a negative effect on society as a whole because it sidelines a lot of those issues female legislators may present. Likewise lack of ethical farm practices extends to a lack of ethical business practices where the profit margins of particular products become more important than those products quality (though ultimately that is still kinda Chipotle's goal, it's kinda a razor's edge we walk between the two sides).

-D