Chipotle customers may not know the green bell peppers or lettuce in their burritos came from a local farm, but the chain thinks they’ll taste the difference.
Last summer, Denver-based Chipotle said it would begin buying 25 percent of at least one of its produce items from farms within 200 miles of each of its stores. That compares with the more than 1,500 miles that most produce consumed in the country travels from farm to table, says Chris Arnold, a spokesman for the more than 800-unit chain.
But while Chipotle starts small, it thinks big.
“Ultimately, the larger vision is to change how the world thinks about and eats fast food,” Arnold says. The local-sourcing program for produce–which includes romaine lettuce, green bell peppers, jalapeños and red onions–is an extension of Chipotle’s “Food with Integrity” philosophy that started nine years ago when the chain began buying naturally raised pork.
Today, all the pork the chain serves is naturally raised, as is all the chicken served in domestic restaurants. Sixty percent of the beef is naturally raised as well, Arnold says. In addition, 35 percent of Chipotle’s pinto and black beans are organically grown, and all cheese and sour cream is made with milk from cows that were not given the growth hormone rBGH.
Though the goal was narrowing the gap between its restaurants and where produce is grown, Chipotle had to do a lot of legwork in order to find the right farms that could fulfill the chain’s sizable demands, Arnold says.
“It was a pretty laborious process,” he says. “We looked at a number of small farms that sell a lot of what they grow to consumers through farmers markets, community-supported agriculture programs and chef-driven restaurants.… The small farms would have a hard time providing the quantity of what we need. We looked at a lot of mid-size farms, 500 to 2,000 acres, and thought that was the right way to go for this program.”
Chipotle then had to work with each farm to ensure it met the chain’s food safety standard and to work out transportation logistics, Arnold says, noting that the farms were eager to participate.
“We think there will be a pretty significant benefit for rural communities where we operate our restaurants,” he says. “Supporting these smaller farms creates considerable opportunities over time. We’re optimistic there will be some benefits to us.”
The difference in cost with the local-sourcing program is minimal, Arnold says. The local produce costs more, he says, but the chain saves on transportation expenses.
The benefit to the customer, however, is clear: better-tasting food made with fresher ingredients, Arnold says. Even if they don’t exactly know why.
“It takes a little while to educate people,” he says. “People appreciate the great-tasting food, but they don’t know all the steps we take to make it taste so good.”
Arnold’s advice for other restaurants interested in making a similar move to using more sustainably raised ingredients is to plan to be in it for the long haul.
“When you’re dealing with large operations like Chipotle, first you have to have a willingness to start small and build,” he says. “The supply for things like naturally raised meat or locally grown produce just isn’t there. You can’t throw a switch and be done right away.
“Commit to it in the long run,” he continues. “You can’t look at these things as being short-term. You have to commit to smaller farms and educate customers over time about the benefits of sustainably raised food. None of that happens overnight.”