Note: Not an actual McDonald's chicken farm.
Back in the 1990s, McDonald's invested heavily in Chipotle and helped grow the franchise
dramatically:
The Big Mac chain invested in Chipotle's business in 1998 when it had 14 locations. By 2005, McDonald's had a 90% stake — and Chipotle had 460 locations.
The philosophies of Steve Ells and McDonald's executives couldn't have been more
different:
What we found at the end of the day was that culturally we're very different. There are two big things that we do differently. One is the way we approach food, and the other is the way we approach our people culture. It's the combination of those things that I think make us successful.
The partnership between Chipotle and McDonald's ended in 2006, but not before Ells had been invited to visit a McDonald's chicken farm. Bob Ells, Steve's father, had this to say:
They [McDonald’s] invited Steve to go to their chicken farm in Arkansas. He came back and said it was absolutely the most disgusting thing he’d ever seen in his life.
In 2011, ABC did an investigative report on the farms that supply eggs to McDonalds and within days of it airing,
McDonald's dumped the supplier and adopted new standards. (See ABC's video report below the fold).
This experience may have influenced Chipotle as they looked at suppliers in the future. It was around this time that Ells decided to switch to suppliers using more natural methods:
In the article, published back in 1999, writer Edward Behr described a thick pork chop he'd eaten at Chez Panisse in Berkeley that came from a pig raised on the Iowa farm. "It was the best pork I'd ever eaten — tender and somewhat fatty," he wrote. Ells was intrigued.
Ells ordered some pork from Willis, who had teamed up with Niman Ranch in Iowa, and Chipotle's customers responded: Despite a jump in price from $4.50 to $5.50 for a carnitas burrito, sales improved.
In fact, sales of carnitas doubled. They also changed their tagline to
"food with integrity."
Their commitment to "food with integrity" was on display earlier this month when they announced they were suspending sales of pork carnitas at some locations:
About a third of all Chipotle restaurants are not serving carnitas at the moment, because the restaurant chain has suspended one of its major pork suppliers.
The restaurant chain has declined to identify the supplier and the exact reasons for the suspension. In its official statements, Chipotle said only that the supplier was not in compliance with the company's animal welfare standards.
At issue seems to be the "farrowing crates" which are used to confine pregnant and nursing pigs, which many farmers insist are more humane than they sound. Nonetheless, Chipotle is sticking with their "food with integrity" guidelines:
Chipotle's head of communication, Chris Arnold, says this has not been a problem so far. The current shortfall in pork was a one-time problem with a single supplier, he says. In general, he says, Chipotle has had little difficulty finding pork suppliers who are willing and able to follow its rules.
It's
not a perfect company, but kudos to Chipotle for taking a stand on factory farming. They can be an example for other large scale buyers in the future.
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