Chipotle To Make Damned Sure It Won't Run Out Of Carne Asada

So Chipotle has carne asada now. And it's really good. But with great success comes great responsibility, as Popeyes learned with its chicken sandwich. You don't want to get people hooked on something and then run out.

"With carne asada, we've had trouble sourcing enough beef that meets our 'food with integrity' guidelines," Chris Brandt, Chipotle's chief marketing officer, told CNN.

Therefore, in order to insure its beef, pork, and dairy supply chains, Chipotle has announced it will be offering three-year contracts to farmers under 40 (as long as they meet certain conditions, restrictions may apply, read the small print, blah blah blah). This benefits the farmers, too: they'll get paid for what they produce, and they won't produce more food than anyone is willing to purchase.

Chipotle will also be partnering with the National Young Farmers Coalition to raise grant money for farmers to invest in capital improvements to their farms. Tomorrow, December 6, is Farmer Friday, which means $1 from every Chipotle entree, up to $250,000, will go toward those grants.

Farming, as you have probably already guessed, is not exactly a growing profession among young people. According to a 2017 survey by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, the average age of American farmers is 57.5, and out of 3.4 million farmers nationwide, 312,000 were under 35.

So it's nice to see a corporate initiative that really does benefit everyone.