Is Chipotle Beef Grass Fed 2019

On the heels of the declaration that Chipotle is taking tangible steps to be completely GMO-gratis, they've at present announced that they're going to be serving 100% grass-fed beef nationwide.

Unfortunately, the grass-fed cattle won't be coming from the United States. According to Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold, at that place simply isn't a consistent plenty supply of grass-fed, antibiotic-costless, hormone-gratuitous beefiness in the U.S. to run into the restaurant's large demand.

In response to this revelation, the Texas Commissioner of Agronomics took offense and issued a statement lambasting the restaurant chain.

But I thought Chipotle already used grass-fed beef!

Nope.

Until last year, the eating house chain served antibiotic-free beefiness, but the beef was merely grass-fed in certain locations where the local supply of grass-fed cattle could meet a restaurant's demand.

So, in the wake of a nationwide drought that decimated the U.Due south. cattle population, Chipotle was forced to start using conventionally raised beef in the summer of 2013 in lodge to encounter client demand.

Is Chipotle misguided?

That's what Texas Ag Commissioner Todd Staples said in a letter of the alphabet dated this past Monday, June 16th.

He called the restaurant chain "misguided" and "irresponsible" for believing that Australian cattle is raised any more responsibly than Texan cattle.

"We take a wide variety of producers and processors," he wrote. "Information technology seems foolish to discount these immense, local resources when making decisions about where to source your beef."
(source)

While I agree with the sentiment that the more local a food is, the amend it is, that's not Chipotle's principal concern.

"The eatery chain doesn't want beefiness that's been shot up total of hormones and antibiotics; instead information technology's looking for truthful grass-fed beef that are complimentary from those foreign substances, and Australia is a leader in that field."
(source)

In fact, Chipotle director Steve Ells defended his decision to use beef sourced from Southern Australia in a contempo Huffington Post commodity using that exact justification:

The meat produced by these ranchers is "grass-fed" in the truest sense of the term: The cattle spend their entire lives grazing on pastures or rangelands, eating simply grass or forages (by definition, forages are hay and grass–corn is not forage). It meets or exceeds the husbandry standards fix along by the American Grassfed Association, not to mention all of the protocols nosotros apply to our domestic Responsibly Raised beef. The cattle are raised without added hormones, antibiotics or growth promotants past ranchers committed to humane brute husbandry.
(source)

Volition Chipotle all the same serve local grass-fed beef?

Yeah.

In fact, it sounds like it's their goal to serve entirely U.Due south. raised grass-fed beef in the hereafter. Yet, at this point in time, it'south just non possible. Steve Ellis wrote:

While we're purchasing minor amounts of grass-fed beef from American producers like Missouri's Rain Crow Ranch, about of the U.S. grass-fed beefiness that meets our standards is simply not produced in sufficient quantities to meet our demand.
(source)

Chipotle is nether fire from natural food enthusiasts, as well.

In a Facebook annotate left on Steve Ellis' Huffington Post declaration about the company's move to sourcing Australian beef, a representative of Riven Stone Subcontract wrote:

"We walked into a Chipotle an hour from our mount subcontract and saw a sign that stated that Chipotle had to serve conventionally raised beef for awhile until they could observe local suppliers. Our phone has not rang. My other grass finishing friends phones take not rang. No emails either. We are a growing operation- with higher standards than Chipotle. I fear Chipotle has outgrown their ability to stay true to their roots. Australia- really?? That'south not a local, sustainable food supply model. The reason is dollars. Big corporations in Australia peddling industrial grass fed beef. Low price points- large margins."
(source)

And another fan of grass-fed beef complained about sourcing from Commonwealth of australia:

"I am ALL for grass-fed beef! I Beloved Chipotle. My trouble with sourcing beef from Australia is the fact that is has to be transported in the most environmentally unfriendly way. This stuff can't go by sea, right? And even if it does, that means millions of gallons of fuel and refrigeration liquid. That meat won't be fresh. I would and so love to see American farmers go dorsum to the skillful ol' days, where animals weren't hopped up on drugs and hormones. I merely don't meet this every bit an advantageous attempt for anyone except Chipotle."
(source)

What do y'all think? Is this a positive move for Chipotle? Or a stride backwards?

(photo past futursonic)

Kristen Michaelis CNC has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2008. Founder and CEO of Food Renegade, she'southward a passionate advocate for Real FOOD -- food that's sustainable, organic, local, and traditionally-prepared according to the wisdom of our ancestors. She earned a Available of Arts (summa cum laude) from Dallas Baptist University in Philosophy and Biblical Studies, so began her post-graduate journey every bit a researcher in the fields of wellness and nutrition. While she adores hats & happy skirts, cypher inspires her quite similar geeking out over nutrition & sustainable agronomics. Nutrition educator & author of the go-to volume on nutrition for fertility, she's also a insubordinate with a crusade who enjoys playing in the rain, a good canteen of Caol Isla scotch, curling upwards with a folio-turning book, sunbathing on her hammock, and parenting her 3 children every bit they grow into young adults.

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Source: https://www.foodrenegade.com/chipotle-grass-fed-beef-texas/

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