Chipotle's Business Model

Because I eat out so rarely, I had never eaten at a Chipotle fast-food restaurant. I've been aware of them for years but never knew there was anything different about them other than that seemed to be growing rapidly. But after watching the following video—they buy pork, chicken, and beef from sustainable natural farmers like Joel Salatin—I looked a bit closer and discovered there was a Chipotle in Matthews. I ordered and paid for a vegetarian burrito online and scheduled a pickup time following church on Sunday—worked like a charm. The burrito was great—my only preference would have been for brown rice instead of nutritionally deficient white rice—but otherwise it was very good. Nice to see a major fast-food chain going the extra step to use food sources that are outside the factory-farm system for raising animals. Unfortunately, neither the video nor anything on their web site (that I saw) suggests they are using organically grown ingredients on the veggie side of their model. Hopefully they'll get there. (I also like Chipotle because they co-sponsored a pro-Tour bike racing Team, at least for a year—haven't heard anything about their sponsorship lately.)

Anybody have any other experience/information about Chipotle? My enthusiasm for Chipotle's business model (their animal food sources) shouldn't be misinterpreted as support for their animal-based menu. Rather, I take note of it as evidence of a rising level of consciousness in the culture about the place of animals as "beings" rather than as commodities. That's a step in the right direction. The next step will be, once animals are recognized as "beings" by the whole culture, when the culture experiences the revulsion of slaughtering and consuming sentient beings. So we acknowledge small steps as they occur. And Chipotle has definitely taken a major step in a positive direction by sourcing their animal products from farmers who treat the animals well, doing less harm to the animals and the people who eat them.