Once fully downloaded onto my phone, I quickly began my session. The colors in this game, I noticed, were very crisp and pretty. Color definitely was in this game to specifically set the mood. For example, the factory that you are running through is dark, and uses colors like blues, and silver to help set the somber tone. There are evil scarecrows in the game that have black feathers, with glowing red eyes. You can tell that these characters are not who you want to mess with. Inside the factory, there are many obstacles that you, the scarecrow, have to go through in order to get out of the factory and safely transport the food.
Another area in the game is going through downtown. You have to help save the caged livestock in order for them to be returned to the farm. They can then roam free to their hearts content when they are on their farm. While saving the animals, you have to fly through several obstacles, like avoiding all the advertising of "Crow Foods". The colors in this scene paint a picture of false happiness. You see all the brightly colored advertisements, enticing passerby's interest as they fly by. Don't be fooled by this propaganda, however. Millions of animals are put in confined spaces, and then get sick because of this. Chipotle's site explains, "Today‘s industrial agriculture practices call for keeping many animals in tiny spaces and feeding them antibiotics to ward off diseases that arise from their inhumane conditions. But it doesn‘t have to be this way. Healthy and happy animals thrive when given room to express their natural tendencies" (Chipotle).
Animals need to be able to go and come as they please. They were not meant to be caged, and when you put them in cramped places, they get sick. When the animals are sick, we pump them with antibiotics, but if you think of it, why would you still want to eat an animal full of all sorts of byproducts? This game has demonstrated to me that there are better ways of getting our food. We need to treat these animals with respect. This goes back to my movie review where I watched about Temple Grandin and her fight for humane animal treatments. In the movie, she explains about cattle and the benefits of humane treatment, "We raise them for us. That means we owe them some respect. Nature is cruel but we don’t have to be. We can easily do it a way where they don’t feel pain and they don’t get scared” (Grandin, 1:30:43).
As I continued my virtual journey, I finally got a chance to make it to the Scarecrow farm. So much brightness in this section of them game! It was very pretty in contrast to the crow factory. As the scarecrow, I ran around the farm, cultivating my new crops. There shot up healthy foods from the soil, like tomatoes, corn, cabbage, carrots and a few more. These crops were spread throughout the farm, as I ran around sowing the fields. I had to make sure to avoid the crows up ahead of me. They flew around and did their best to poison my healthy crops. I did my best to make sure to avoid them to ensure my crops to stay plentiful.
Chipotle believes in buying fresh food from farmers who care about their crops. They claim the benefits of buying from a farmer include, "We believe family farmers are more likely to respect their land by rotating crops, avoiding pesticides, and planting with diversity. Factory farms may be less connected to the land, and therefore more likely to deplete the soil and dump tons of waste in a small area" (Chipotle). Since Chipotle believes in the miracles that local farmers create, they choose to buy from them. This serves to be great practice because it ensures that the food being grown is in the more than capable hands of the people who truly care about the process of food growth. These farmers know what they are doing, and respect the land that they work on. If more people were to turn to these farmers, we would have much better food sources circulating around us.
On the last leg of my journey, I finally made it to the town square with all the local foods. By local foods, I mean processed foods all around me. The scarecrow was the only one to be serving up actual fresh foods, as well as much healthier alternatives to the surrounding places. I was on a mission to get this fresh food to all the hungry people in town. I had to make sure that I served them before they started going to all the unhealthy places around me. I had to run fast in order to keep the towns people happy. It was also challenging because I had to run back to the main stand in order to get more food, and through this, more people would start heading to other nearby places. I failed a couple of times, but enjoyed when I accomplished putting smiles on a person's face. Chipotle supports that, "Food prepared from fresh, wholesome ingredients is generally tastier and healthier than food from heavily processed ingredients" (Chipotle). I have to say that Chipotle's food tastes much better than most places and makes me feel full after just a salad. You can definitely tastes the quality ingredients that goes into their products. It also does not make you feel like you are eating fake meat, or eating gobs of oil-filled foods. The fact that Chipotle uses fresh ingredients is what make's their food a great option to eat.
Playing the Scarecrow has been a great experience for me because it only reaffirms what I have learned in class. The farmers who work hard on their land on are the ones you can most trust when buying your food from. These farmers go out everyday, and put their all into what they are doing. It is not an easy job at all. We have learned that there are numerous factors that must be accounted for like the weather, the soil, the way you treat your land. These are all things that a farmer must do to ensure that they are growing the best crops they can. Their dedication and hard work through hard times shows that these are the people we can trust. One woman I read about in this class was Elinore Pruitt Stewart. She was a homesteader who was not thrown an easy life of farming. She had to work hard in order to amount to any little success. She goes through many problems until she finally sees some progress years later from the time she started. She writes, "Of course I am extra strong, but those who try know that strength and knowledge come with doing. I just love to experiment, to work, and to prove out things, so that ranch life and 'roughing it' just suit me" (Farm, p.133) Elinore proves that farmers do not have it easy, but they do it because they are strong-willed. They do not give up hope because they strive to put their best foot forward and provide great food for us. Chipotle does just this by choosing these strong-willed farmer to provide only the best foods so that it can be served to guests.
Getting to play this game has made me respect Chipotle even more for choosing to use fresh products, and choosing farmers who respect the land. I feel much more inspired that a company is choosing to not go the easy route and use questionable products. Because of their dedication to serving only quality items, you can see why chipotle is one of the best food choices to go to. I know that I will be even more of a loyal customer of Chipotle's because this experience only reaffirms what I have thought about their food and motto. Indeed, Chipotle remains to be one of the best places you can go to for both their great food, and how they portray themselves, ethically.
Work Cited:
- "The Scarecrow." The Scarecrow. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.scarecrowgame.com/game.html>.
- Temple Grandin. Dir. Mick Jackson. Perf. Claire Danes. Warner Bros., 2010. DVD.
- Kinkead, Funda, McNeill. “Elinore Pruitt Stewart”. Farm-A Multimodal Reader. Book.
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