Chipotle Makes Effort Towards Sustainability

Last month, I went to Chipotle Mexican Grill with my Sustainability in a Changing World class. Coming from Northern Virginia, Chipotle is nothing new to me, as I live near many Chipotle restaurants and love it. Even before learning about the uniqueness of the restaurant in class, I had heard of Chipotle’s efforts to serve “food with integrity.” While Chipotle serves food fast, it is not a fast-food restaurant, but rather a restaurant that serves high-quality ingredients and sustainable food. Founder Steve Ells got acquainted with local food when working in San Francisco. From the start of Chipotle, his goal has been to serve sustainable and fresh food. Instead of buying pork from some industrialized meat production operation, Ells buys pork from independent ranchers who are committed to humanely raising animals outdoors and without the use of antibiotics. Like with pork, Chipotle is trying to move towards have most of their ingredients being sustainable. Ells wants all meat from animals raided without the use of antibiotics or added hormones. Food that is naturally raised without chemicals and hormones not only means better quality food, but also better for the environment and for local farmers. In Chipotle’s attempt to go local with much of its ingredients, they are supporting local farmers rather than the centralized and industrialized food system. With going locally, Chipotle gets organic food, which Ells believes is not only better for the environment, but is also better food. Like the meat, Chipotle is still working towards obtaining more local food, as right now 40% of Chipotle’s beans are organically grown. Just as important as serving healthy, fresh, and chemical rid food, Chipotle is helping the environment. After all, food with integrity is a movement towards sustainability. “On the surface, sustainable food appears to cost more. But, if you look at the cost of industrialized/ processed food and then add in the cost of environmental degradation, displaced family farms, the exploitation of animals, the ramifications of the overuse of antibiotics, etc., you come to understand that there’s no real value in the industrialized system,” says Ells in an interview. By going local, the distance food is traveling is less. Chipotle is moving away from the centralized food industry that consists of factory farms and industrial ranching, all of which produce lots of waste and contributes to the greenhouse gases that are going into the atmosphere.

http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/fwi/environment/environment.aspx

http://blog.nature.org/2011/04/an-interview-with-steve-ells-founder-of-chipotle-mexican-grill/