Chipotle Mexican Grill goes green (i.e., local)!

The burrito giant buys pork from celebrity farmer Joel Salatin

Posted by Tom Philpott at 12:06 PM on 28 Mar 2008

Chipotle Mexican Grill used to be, but no longer is, partly owned by McDonald's. It runs 700 restaurants nationwide -- with plans to roll out 125 more this year -- and is considered one of the nation's fastest-growing "casual dining" chains. And it seems earnestly interested in sourcing ingredients from small- and mid-sized farmers near its outlets.

At its shop in Charlottesville, Va., the Washington Post reports, it's been buying pork from Polyface Farm, an operation legendary in sustainable-ag circles for its innovative multi-species rotational grazing system. Polyface and its farmer, Joel Salatin, were immortalized in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

According to the Post:

This month, Chipotle hopes to serve 100 percent Polyface pork in Charlottesville. But that success comes after 17 months of complex negotiations and logistics, including buying extra cooking equipment, developing new recipes, adjusting work schedules, and investing in temperature-monitoring technology for Polyface's delivery van.

Chipotle -- which the Post reports as buying a jaw-dropping 5 millions pounds of pork annually -- already sources "naturally raised" pork from Niman Ranch, which buys mainly from family farmers in Iowa and distributes nationally. The Polyface deal represents an experiment in local/regional sourcing.

There were certain, um, cultural obstacles to overcome. For example, individual Chipotle restaurants don't have fully equipped kitchens; cooking is done in regional hubs and then trucked out to be reheated in the shops. (A similar situation holds true for public-school cafeterias.) Get this:

The pork for all 67 of its mid-Atlantic restaurants is cooked at a kitchen in Manassas, so Chipotle had to refit the Charlottesville branch to accommodate an oven where the Polyface pork could be braised, plus buy pots, pans, and a cooling rack.

But if the Polyface/Chipotle relationship works out and is replicated, it could be great for mid-sized pastured-meat operations. As the article explains:

[Polyface's] fine-dining clients and buying club members couldn't get enough of the chops and loins ... But Salatin needed a customer to buy shoulders and legs, tougher cuts that are perfect for braising and wrapping in burritos.

Meanwhile, I know for a fact that the company is looking earnestly for farmers to provide grass-fed milk. After I posted recently on controversies in the organic-milk world, a Chipotle researcher contacted me looking for possible milk sources.

I told her that as long as Chipotle was committed to paying a fair price to farmers -- and not merely using them them for marketing leverage -- I thought the company could play a constructive role in a nationwide transition to a truly sustainable ag. We'll see.

For story: Chipotle Mexican Grill goes green (i.e., local)!
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Green Chains a Welcome Change

If Chipotle's green choices bring them even moderate success, this could bring about a huge paradigm shift in franchise restaurants nationwide. As much as we may want chain restaurants to disappear, they're here to stay. If we can get them to (genuinely) embrace local food resources, we may be able to transition more quickly as a nation to greener restaurant dining.

At Green Baby Guide focuses on down-to-earth ways to save time, money and the planet with a baby in tow.

by Green Baby at 1:13 PM on 28 Mar 2008

Green chains

Yes, indeed, Chipolte should be applauded for all efforts to support the local food network.

But,

The pork for all 67 of its mid-Atlantic restaurants is cooked at a kitchen in Manassas, so Chipotle had to refit the Charlottesville branch to accommodate an oven where the Polyface pork could be braised, plus buy pots, pans, and a cooling rack.

eeewwwwww. It's no wonder I don't eat at these types of restaurants. It can only be a good thing if all the chains "go local" and, in the course of that, actually prepare food, on-site, at their "restaraunts."

by kmp at 1:34 PM on 28 Mar 2008

Potemkin Burrito?

Let's just ignore that Chipotle is probably shoving aside the local mexican restaurant run by actual hispanics and ignore that little bit about the massive trucking of cooked pork around mid-atlantic states. Because um, ovens are a problem to install. (wtf?)

It's a publicity stunt.

Joel Salatin was selling every pig he raised before Chipotle decided to play. They aren't paying farmers to replicate his methods. They're cornering the market on his product.

As a former chef and current gourmet and slow foodist I must protest that this represents no more than marginal improvement over other corporate fast food establishments and no improvement at all over whatever local eatery that Chipotle is cannibalizing business from.

Thanks Chipotle for choking out one of the last sectors where family run businesses produced cheap, unique and interesting food in favor of your boring pablum.

If they go after Pho restaurants I swear I'm going postal.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 1:57 PM on 28 Mar 2008

This is a positive story

I'll bet they rake it in. They could use less pork to compensate for higher costs. Customers wouldn't notice the difference and would be eating healthier to boot.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 1:57 PM on 28 Mar 2008

But then, Pangolin has a point or two

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 1:59 PM on 28 Mar 2008

Huh?

I don't understand Pangolin. If Chipotle corners the supply from one producer, others will appear to take up the slack and get in on the market. That's how free enterprise works. Start up of a pork operation isn't subject to many barriers.

Chains only thrive when they offer improvements in value (and reliability) over locals. In my area we don't have chain restaurants with Mexican food because the locals are good. My guess is that chain restaurants don't have the same type of advantage that "big box" retailers have over locals if local restaurants are well run. They have done well only because so many local restaurants are not run well.

by KenG at 3:01 PM on 28 Mar 2008

They ALREADY use less pork

Than my local taco truck and they charge you two bucks more for the privilige of an all-rice-and-beans "pork" burrito. They do however compensate by handing the thing to you in a big-ass heavy paper sack rather than the skimpy one-layer of foil that the taco truck gives you. That sack had to cost them at least 50 cents.

The families that run the taco trucks contribute mountains of hand-rolled tamales to sell as fundraisers at every school event my kids school ever has. They've done this over the ten years my kids have been going to that school. I've never once seen Chipotle sponser an event at the Junior high that is just around the corner of their local shop. Not once.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 4:05 PM on 28 Mar 2008

Hello, is farmland now free?

Oh, no it's not. Don't think it's all that easy for a 20 year old kid to go into farming unless his family has land because it's not. That could be why the average age in some farm counties exceeds 50.

Chipotle chose to purchase the pork from Joel Salatin as an advertising ploy rather than say, hiring Joel to supervise the establishment or conversion of other pork operations.

Chains thrive because they have advantages in access to financing and bulk purchase of advertising and material inputs. Mom and pop operations can only compete by providing superior quality or by using cheaper (family) labor.

Despite the obvious superiority in the quality of local burrito shops there are still chain mexican restaurants in Los Angeles. Because people are stupid.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 4:17 PM on 28 Mar 2008
[ Parent ]

I'm so tired of Greenwash

Big deal. A large chain moves to empty the Great Lakes with a teaspoon, and we should applaud? Give me a break. They are still serving MEAT (big greenhouse gas emitter) to people who show up in fossil-fool powered wheelchairs. This is not even on the path to sustainability and should not warrant any serious attention.

by human power at 7:58 PM on 28 Mar 2008

Pork Producers

Raising pork is about the easiest farming to get into and out of (short of chickens) since the cycle to market is small, the land required is minimal and almost any existing structures can be adopted for hogs. I know people who pop in and out of this as the market swings. Having raised hogs, this is something I actually know about. :-)

by KenG at 9:40 PM on 28 Mar 2008

It's a step.

I don't know if it's a publicity stunt or a sincere experiment. I do question whether any fast food restaurant, an industry with a price structure based on economies of scale, can possibly compete using locally-raised ingredients. Will fast food customers pay more for their pork burritos in order to get humanely and sustainably-raised local meat?

by valereee at 1:48 AM on 29 Mar 2008

Interesting.

Chipotle's market positioning raises some interesting issues. Consider:

We now have at least one national chain restaurant that includes organic and other environmental health claims in its core branding. I find it hard to see the downside in this: the competition is Taco Bell, fer chrissakes!
Including a measure of local sourcing in at least one of their locations is an indicator that at least someone in the organization has ambitions to raise the bar beyond the organic easy button. Again, not something to be sneered at.
The visibility of a large chain brings with it some measure of public accountability and is raising the profile of locavore thinking. It also raises public awareness of how crippled most chain restaurants are in terms of their location-based food prep facilities: think, they had to install an actual KITCHEN in Charlottesville to accommodate this arcane idea.

Meanwhile, the taco trucks may be more authentic and deliver more pork for less money but do the customers (or even the operators) have much idea where the meat and other ingredients come from and how they're produced? Absent this information it's hard to accept at face value Pangolin's claim that his local burrito spots are "obviously superior". CAFO pork from a friendly local mom and pop is still CAFO pork.

What to do? Like Pangolin, I've always been a fan of cheap local food joints but I also value known quality in the food supply chain. In our area the locally-owned restaurants (such as Chapel Hill's very excellent Lantern) that make a point of serving only or primarily sustainably-grown local farm produce have tended to be upscale and relatively expensive, and I suspect this is generally the case elsewhere. There are encouraging signs though that the locavore attitude is trickling down to more ordinary eating establishments, and that local food communities of farmers, markets and consumers are springing up which will certainly help the small single store or eating spot develop in this way.

Developing these food networks will be indispensable if we are to see locally-owned sustainable food production linked to locally-owned community food outlets, which has to be a better goal than dependence on any chain. We can help. Solid support for our local coops and farmer's markets and CSA's will ultimately help our local restaurants too.

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

by spaceshaper at 12:21 PM on 29 Mar 2008

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