Chipotle: That's Not Natural

Chipotle appears on my blog often - the burrito giant often brags about sourcing naturally raised meats while condemning conventional agriculture and even goes to such lengths to produce anti-conventional agriculture videos that are glaringly inaccurate, which makes them a high priority on the list of blog topics.

Which is why this photo I saw on Feedstuffs Foodlink's Facebook page made me giggle.

This picture, courtesy Feedstuffs Foodlink, was taken by a customer in Kentucky although it's worth pointing out that similar signs have been seen in Illinois Chipotle locations.

What does this mean? Well in this post, I talked about how Chipotle has said in the past that the economy sometimes prevents them from sourcing natural beef and chicken. Here is the excerpt verbatim:

“We do, however, face challenges associated with pursuing Food With Integrity. For example, current economic conditions have led to natural chicken and steak supply shortages. It can take longer to identify and secure relationships with suppliers meeting our criteria, and there are higher costs and other risks associated with purchasing naturally raised or sustainably grown ingredients. The growing time for naturally raised meat and sustainably grown vegetables can be longer. Herd losses can also be greater when animals are not treated with antibiotics and hormones and field losses can be higher for organically grown produce. Given the costs associated with natural and sustainable farming practices, and recently due to decreased demand as a result of the weak economic environment, many large suppliers have not found it economical to pursue business in this area.” -- taken from Chipotle's annual report.

What this means is that due to a variety of factors, many of which are likely drought/supply/economy related, Chipotle has found it absolutely necessary to use conventionally produced meat instead of natural. I'm guessing it's either because it's too expensive for them to turn enough profit or they simply can't find enough of it to keep their supply chain running. Like I said, those are my speculations.

Several people commented on that post when I originally put it on my blog arguing that Chipotle didn't actually say, "We are using conventional" and to those folks I say, is this the absolute proof you need? I should hope so.

I must applaud Chipotle for being honest and not hiding their conventional sourcing from customers, although I wish they'd just drop their elitist marketing ploy altogether.

Poll the audience: Who out there can honestly say that they buy food based solely on production practices and nutrition, without considering price?
Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Which Food Service Companies Ban Gestation Stalls?

 image from here

It seems like almost every month another food service provider breaks with the news that they are going to be phasing out gestation stalls. I have scoured searched a little bit on the internet for a succinct list of all these food companies but haven’t been very successful. Then I thought to myself, “Self, I bet there are other people who would like to know this information – you should find and combine all of this for the folks on the internet to find.” So here is my list. I may not have found all of them but if you know of one I have missed, please let me know and I’ll keep the list updated!

These are the companies who have committed to sourcing pork from producers who don't use gestation stalls or are phasing them out of their own facilities:

Applebee's ARAMARK Arby’s Atlantic Premium Brands - supplier to Wal-Mart Au Bon Pain Bon Appetit Management Company Bruegger's Bagels Burger King Campbell Soup Cargill Carl’s Jr Carnival Cruise Line Chipotle Compass Group ConAgra Costco Cracker Barrel Denny’s Dunkin' Brands Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Fresh Enterprises (Baja Fresh, Canyon's Burger) General Mills Hardee’s Harris Teeter Supermarkets Heinz Hillshire Brands (Jimmy Dean, Ballpark) Hormel Foods IHOP Jack in the Box Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer Kroger Marriott International McDonald’s Metz Culinary Management Quiznos Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Royal Caribbean Safeway Smithfield Foods Sodexo Sonic Subway Supervalu Sysco Target The Cheesecake Factory Wolfgang Puck-owned restaurants Wendy’s  Whole Foods Wienerschnitzel Williams Sausage Company Winn-Dixie

Not only have these food service companies decided to phase out gestation stalls, there are nine states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island – who have already passed laws to ban the use of gestation crates from pork supply chain practices. Unfortunately, I don't see this pattern of phasing out gestation crates ending anytime soon. So, until the next company issues a press release here is the list. Again, please let me know if I missed any. Until next time, ~ Buzzard ~

Meeting Ag Tweeps Down Under!

Earlier this week, Hyatt and I had the privilege of meeting Grahame Rees. Grahame is the co-owner and operator of KLR Marketing, a program that, among other things, educates producers about how to successfully market their livestock and protect their equity, in Loomberah, NSW.

Grahame briefly spoke to us about his Low Stress Stockhandling schools and invited us to attend one in November, which we'll probably end up doing. Grahame uses principles that were established by Bud Williams, well-known and highly respected cattle handling expert from Alberta, Canada who has just recently moved to Independence, Kan. Bud and Grahame focus their schools on stimulus-response animal handling which is a different school of thought than behaviorist Temple Grandin.

Bud was the developer of the 'Bud Box' which you can see being utilized below. The K-State beef feedlot has a bud box that I have used several times and I truly appreciate it's simplistic, yet effective, nature.



It was really great to meet Grahame, who is a fellow ag tweeter, I can mark him off the long, long list of agriculture tweeps I want to meet. We're really looking forward to seeing him again in November and we promised that if he ever came to Kansas he could stay for dinner!

To learn more about Low Stress Stockhandling or KLR Marketing you can visit any of these sites and be sure to follow Grahame on twitter (@peneena).
- www.klrmarketing.com.au
- www.lss.net.au
- www.campfirecoaching.com
- www.grahamereesblog.com

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~