Chipotle Promises Naturally Raised Meat
Last week, Chipotle Mexican Grill announced that it will be serving more than 52 million pounds (or about 200 million meals) of naturally raised meat in 2008, a 40 percent increase from last year. This move is part of the chain’s “food with integrity” campaign, which began in 2000. Whether or not you’re a fan of Chipotle’s thousand-calorie burritos, it’s impressive to hear how highly Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch, speaks of the company:
Chipotle has done more to positively influence the landscape of rural America than any other company or government program. ... When Chipotle began working with Niman Ranch, there were fewer than 50 family-owned pig farms in the system. Today more than 500 family farms adhere to a humane, natural method, and that’s because Chipotle has provided those farmers a fair market for their pork.
Still, the animal-rights activists of PETA want Chipotle to consider the rights of all the animals on its menu. PETA told Examiner.com that:
Chipotle uses chickens that are hung upside-down by their legs in metal shackles that break their bones before they are shocked with electrified current, have their throats slit while they are still conscious, and are dropped into tanks of scalding water.
According to the Rocky Mountain News, PETA is asking Chipotle—and other fast food chains—to contract with chicken suppliers that use the method of slaughter wherein “the oxygen that chickens breathe is slowly replaced by inert gases.” Apparently, death by asphyxiation, though it sounds rather slow and painful, is considered “less cruel” by animal-rights activists.
Posted by
| Monday, January 14, 2008 at 7:48am
| 3 comments
Tagged with: chipotle, niman ranch, peta, burritos, examiner, rocky mountain news
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In the Chowhound Boards
I think it's great what Chipotle has done. With some of the highest food costs in the industry, they have proved that you can still have good food at a low price with much healthier ingredients.
Also, I feel Chipotle gets a bad wrap for having 1000+ calories... wouldn't any taqueria burrito have a count just as high?
I think that I don't really care what PETA wants.
Basically they want everyone to become vegetarians and not own pets because they consider it demeaning to the animals.
PETA doesn't really care about animals at all -- they just want to control the behavior of humans, and use animals as a means of doing that. I suggest anyone who thinks PETA is a good organization should do some indepth research into what their leaders really think and what they've done (President Ingrid Newkirk actually brags about how many animals she killed when she worked for a shelter -- apparently it's better to kill them than "demean" them).