Ah, Chipotle. Even the just the thought of that bowl of spicy goodness makes my mouth water! If you’re anything like this blogger, you’ve got the app, you rep the gear, and you know how far it is between you and the nearest Chipotle (at all times).
Chipotle is a place where magic happens, literally. But it’s not just the site of delicious noms; it’s also an innovative, environmentally-conscientious center of learning.
Chipotle Mexican Grill supports naturally raised crops and meat, and only does business with farmers that raise their meat humanely. This means that animals have ample space to roam, live in a low-stress or stress-free environment, and rest comfortably in their respective housing areas at night. Frequently, in the food industry at large, animals are fed hormones and antibiotics to make them gain weight faster so that their owners will receive more money per pound of meat. This leads to frequent health problems and other severe environmental issues; at times, the animals’ weight is so high that their legs cannot support them and literally break. Additionally, (if we do a #ThrowbackThursday to our younger years when we first learned about the food web), we find out that the hormones placed in animal meat for human consumption can negatively impact our health as well. Hormones reach us via meat because they’re embedded into the parts of the animal we eat. Having added hormones in our diet isn’t fun either.
Furthermore, feeding antibiotics to animals for disease control creates disease-resistant bacteria that are excreted via animal feces. This can get into main waterways through poor land management and create huge problems for the local ecosystems.
Thank goodness for places like Chipotle! They source from local farmers, such as Matthew and Roxanne Molnar of Grantville, Pennsylvania. According to Chipotle’s website, this specific farm raises chickens that eat only vegetables (no antibiotics or animal by-products!), have ample space to roam (free-range), and live in a “stress-free” environment. Chipotle’s initiative to use locally-sourced ingredients for its restaurants is (aptly) called “Food with Integrity.” So why not support an organization that is environmentally aware and attempts to make the world a safer place to live, one burrito at a time?
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