I love Chipotle. To the point where I know exactly what to say to maximize the amount of sweet, delicious food I get in my bowl. In case you want to know what I order (which is amazing by the way) to get that whopping mountain of food, leave me a private message.

What I don’t love is getting food poisoning. I’ve only ever had it a single time and I can definitely say it is not the greatest experience I’ve had in my life. To the uninformed, Chipotle has recently been battling sanitation/sourcing issues with an outbreak of E. Coli in their food. For any company in the food industry, an issue like this would be absolutely killer for very obvious reasons, but with Chipotle it’s a bit less obvious.

This outbreak threatens the very concept in which the company is based upon, their local food sourcing and ‘food with integrity’ ideals. When compared to a company like McDonalds which uses industrial food sources (which some of you may have seen in documentaries like Food Inc.), Chipotle’s food supply chain could be considered a logistical nightmare. As opposed to one giant conglomerate with huge economies of scale, in order to maintain their values, Chipotle has to source from hundreds of local farms. What ends up happening is that it becomes more difficult to regulate sanitation standards. Coupled with some organic farming practices that are a bit less sanitary (using fresh fertilizer), this poses a higher risk than industrial farming.

People speculate that this outbreak would be a major deterrent from companies trying to source local. However, if a company really had the vision of being sustainable, I do not think that it would stop them from trying. If a company was dedicated enough from the beginning to have planned to attempt the same logistical nightmare Chipotle goes though, one would think that their convictions would be strong enough that they would stand firm.

However, this is also a case of “great before green”. I personally eat Chipotle because it’s delicious. I’m not going to lie, the sustainable part of Chipotle has never had too big of an impact on me, unless it is directly responsible for how good it tastes. What has kept me a customer is the ‘great-ness’ of the food. I feel that most people feel the same, at least from the people I know. In that case, I don’t actually think this outbreak will hurt them too much. Their stock might drop but I for one will still be going. I don’t think I will be the only brave soul willing to risk E. Coli either, given the long lineups in their downtown location.