I know I've been bragging about Chipotle a lot lately, for their Platinum LEED certified building and for providing us with dinner and a movie (for free), but I just noticed this copy of Chipotle founder Steve Ells' testimony at the House Rules Committee hearing on our urgent need to stop filling feed animals up with antibiotics and I just had to pass it along. The act Ells is speaking in support of, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), proposes that antibiotics be saved for medical treatment, so that their overuse will not continue to contribute to the outbreak of super viruses, such as MRSA. If it passes, a cascade effect of benefits for diners are likely to accrue.

For starters, if the law passes, feedlots won't be able to keep cattle and pigs in the factory farm conditions that are the current norm for animal care because the conditions will be lethal to animals that aren't pumped full of antibiotics. If the condition animals are kept in improves to the point where they can survive it without medication, meat will be safer and better for you.

It will also probably become more expensive. If meat gets more expensive, less of it will be consumed, meaning less of it will be raised. There will be lower levels of pollutants dumped onto the land and into the water and less methane gas released into the atmosphere.

Our collective weight is sure to fall, and along with it our rates of the chronic diseases that accompany obesity. Maybe we won't even be in a health care crisis anymore.

At the very least, our world will be cleaner and greener and one of the people we will have to thank for that is Steve Ells. Ells has been adamant about using antibiotic and hormone-free meat in his chain from the get-go.

Whenever I hear restaurateurs say that only the fine dining sector can afford green initiatives, I think of Chipotle. This unassuming little burrito joint is the quintessential fast food with a slow attitude, whose founder has come up with ways to make the savings that come with conservation equal out the sometimes increased costs associated with providing green products. If you're in the restaurant industry, feel free to follow suit.

And if you're a diner, feel free to say thanks at the cash registers of Chipotle restaurants all across the state.