My blog here serves two masters. Or two books, anyway: In Praise of Slow and Under Pressure. Although the newly-published Under Pressure is my top priority at the moment, I still have things to say about Slow. And you can delve deeper into these on www.slowplanet.com. So here goes with a Slow post…
The fast food industry has always seemed at odds with the Slow movement. Just consider the Big Mac: everything from the way its ingredients are sourced to the way it is prepared and consumed is all about speed ? at the expense of quality. But can fast food also be a force for good? There is an article in the current issue of Fast Companythat supplies some food for thought. (Yes, I know, what is a proponent of Slow doing reading a magazine with a name like that? Well, it offers a sparky and insightful take on modern culture. And for some reason I have been given a free subscription…) Anyway, the article is about a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants called Chipotle. It’s growing like a weed across the US, and could have 840 branches and sales of $1 billion by the end of the year. What makes Chipotle stand out from the crowd is that it takes a very ethical ? perhaps even Slow? ? approach to feeding the public. Staff make every burrito by hand, which means that customers queue for much longer than the four-minutes that is standard in the fast food industry. But they’re happy to do so because they prefer hand-made over prefab fare and the burritos taste good. What’s more, the company seeks to use naturally-raised meat wherever possible. It uses rBGH-free dairy products. All its pork is free of growth hormones and antibiotics and is humanely raised. The same goes for 80% of its chicken and 50% of its beef. This means prices are higher than you find at fast food rivals but again customers are willing to pay. This begs some intriguing questions. Is Chipotle’s business model just a niche in the fast food market or is it the beginning of a sea-change? Already two of the biggest fast food giants, Wendy’s and Burgher King, are exploring how to bring humane pork into their supply chain. If enough of the market swings in the right direction, we could be on the verge of a great leap forward in agriculture. But can a large corporation with hundreds of branches like Chipotle ever be Slow? Or Slow enough? And does that even matter if its business practices are nudging the market in a healthy right direction? As it happens, I have just arrived in Seattle to start promoting Under Pressure in the US. Maybe I should go sample one of these Chipotle burritos for myself…