Chipotle Mexican Grill is expanding even further its locally grown produce program. The company began serving produce from local farms in all of its restaurants two years ago and is now working with some 50 local, family-owned farms to provide romaine lettuce, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, red onions, oregano and tomatoes to restaurant locations around the country.
In California, the company also sources locally grown lemons and avocados. The produce generally comes from within about 250 miles of Chipotle's distribution centers, with nearly 70 percent coming from within 150 miles, and one-third of the produce arriving from within 50 miles. On average, produce eaten in America travels some 1,500 miles from where it is grown to where it is consumed.
"Our commitment to serving produce from local farms and other sustainable sources is one of the ways we are changing the way people think about and eat fast food," said Steve Ells, founder, chairman, and co-CEO of Chipotle, in a news release. "Fresh produce from local farms not only has environmental benefits and supports farming communities around the country, it also tastes better. Great tasting food made with local, more sustainably raised ingredients should be available to everyone."
Chipotle began its locally grown produce program in 2008, committing to serve 25 percent of at least one produce item in each of its markets when seasonally available, and increased that commitment to 35 percent in 2009. For 2010, the company will raise its local produce goal to 50 percent. With that, Chipotle will serve about 5 million pounds of produce from local farms this year.
While the company has been applauded for providing "Food with Integrity," some Ohio residents have lashed out at the chain for partnering with the The Humane Society of The United States and its campaign to specify "certain minimum standards" to the newly formed Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.
According to an article in Farm and Dairy, several hundred comments have been left on the Chipotle Facebook page, under titles such as "Done with Chipotle" and "Bashing Agriculture."
From the story:
Kristin Reese, of Baltimore, Ohio, had little patience for Chipotle, or HSUS. "HSUS had their way in CA," she wrote in her post. "Now CA's poultry industry is leaving the state (and) increasing food costs, costing jobs and hurting the economy."
Reese said many of the things called for by HSUS are already law in Ohio, and concluded HSUS is "a vegan wolf in sheep's clothing," one that she and other consumers are eager to uncover. ...
Chipotle appears to be the only big-name food chain to support the HSUS ballot initiative in Ohio, but is among a long list of what HSUS bills as its victories.
