My Favorite Restaurant: Chipotle

One of my favorite things about going home is that I live within 15 minutes of three different Chipotle locations. Chipotle prides itself on being a healthier and more sustainable fast food chain. On their website, they state that their food has integrity, explaining that, “Food with integrity is our commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers”. Their website also says that they try to serve organic and local ingredients at their many locations, although it is not always possible. They try to support local farmers and even get some of their avocados from a farm owned by musician, Jason Mraz. Chipotle made a video that outlines the goals that they have for the company, many of which seem to align with those that Lyson talks about in Civic Agriculture. You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos

All this being said, Chipotle is not perfect. I found this article from farmer, Ryan Goodman, called, “A farmer’s challenge to Chipotle”. He states that Chipotle’s business plan may be too good to be true because many of their locations are unable to meet their high sustainability standards. He criticizes Chipotle’s most recent advertising campaign, in which they have spent millions of dollars on creating an animated Hulu mini-series called “Farmed and Dangerous”, which villainizes large farms and the current food system. Although though we do need to address the current food system, Goodman says that Chipotle is also benefiting from this system because not all their locations’ ingredients are organic and local. His challenge to Chipotle is to be more transparent about how their ingredients are produced and where they come from. Goodman also encourages Chipotle to stop attacking industrial farming and focus on improving upon their own production methods.

here's the link to Goodman's article: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2014/02/17/opinion-a-farmers-challenge-to-chipotle/