News

Chipotle founder testifies before House Committee

July 13, 2009

DENVER — Chipotle Mexican Grill Founder, chairman and co-CEO Steve Ells testified July 13 before the House Rules Committee in support of H.R. 1549, the "Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) of 2009." In his testimony, Ells discussed Chipotle's commitment to serving food from more sustainable sources, including meat from animals that are not given antibiotics.

"When I founded Chipotle 16 years ago, I had what was a novel idea at the time. I wanted to show that food that was served fast didn't have to be a typical fast food experience," Ells said in his statement to the committee. "Now, we are changing the way the world thinks about and eats fast food. We are doing this by serving food made with ingredients from more sustainable sources.

"This move transformed the way we run our business, giving rise to a vision we call Food with Integrity. It set us on a journey to examine each of the ingredients we use to make our food, and how we could get them from more sustainable sources. We have made considerable progress over the last decade."

This year, Chipotle will serve more than 60 million pounds of naturally raised meat – more than any other restaurant company – including all of its pork and chicken, and more than 60 percent of its beef. The chain also serves an increasing amount of organic and local produce, and dairy products made with milk from cows that are never given the synthetic hormone rBGH.

"The crowding and contamination associated with this artificial living environment fosters disease," Ells said of large-scale confinement hog operations. "So the pigs are fed some 10 million pounds of antibiotics – an amount that is three times greater than all antibiotics used to treat human illness. I did not want Chipotle's success to be tied to this kind of exploitation."

Ells concedes that Chipotle's business model is not easily replicated by other restaurant companies as the supply of ingredients from more sustainable sources is limited, and the costs tend to be higher for buyers of these better ingredients.

"Chipotle is a unique success story in that we have found a way to serve more expensive, sustainably raised ingredients, but in a way that remains affordable to the average customer. At the same time, we are able to produce attractive financial results for our shareholders," he explained. "This is a difficult balance to strike."

The Act was introduced March 17, 2009, and amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny an application for a new animal drug that is a critical antimicrobial animal drug unless the applicant demonstrates that there is a reasonably certainty of no harm to human health due to the development of antimicrobial resistance attributable to the nontherapeutic use of the drug. A "critical antimicrobial animal drug" is defined as a drug intended for use in food-producing animals that contains specified antibiotics or other drugs used in humans to treat or prevent disease or infection caused by microorganisms.

The Act requires the Secretary to withdraw approval of a nontherapeutic use of such drugs in food-producing animals two years after the date of enactment of the Act unless certain safety requirements are met.