Chipotle Mexican Grill is once again breaking from the fast-food model.
The Denver-based chain known for its clean flavors and burly burritos is pledging to use a set amount of local produce at each of its more than 730 restaurants around the country — when produce is in season.
This summer, Chipotle is purchasing twenty-five percent of at least one produce item for each of its stores from small and midsize farms situated within 200 miles of the store.
In another move towards sustainable practices in the restaurant industry, Chipotle Mexican Grill, the fast-casual chain famous for oversized burritos made with fresh ingredients, recently started buying sustainably-raised pork from Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm in Chipotle’s Charlottesville, VA stores. Chipotle projects that Polyface will be able to supply 100% of the pork needed for the Charlottesville market. Polyface, profiled in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, is considered the benchmark standard of sustainable animal agriculture agriculture and gives true credibility to Chipotle’s corporate mission to leave a lighter footprint.
The partnership comes on the heels of almost a year and a half of complex negotiations involving equipment needs, recipes, and transportation issues. Salatin found that his fine-dining clients, snapped up the choice cuts of pork he had to offer, but the market was not as strong for tougher cuts, such as shoulders and legs. These tough cuts are perfect for the braising method used in carnitas pork for burritos.
