I remember a few years ago, and even
today, people were becoming increasingly worried about the ingredients McDonald’s
was using, especially in their meat products. This lead to hundreds of investigations,
undercover videos, news stories, and statements from McDonald’s themselves.
While McDonald’s is still a thriving company, some people stopped eating there
entirely, including a few of my own friends and family. I don’t eat at McDonald’s
much personally, but it got me thinking about the other fast food restaurants I
eat at, one of them being Chick-Fil-A. So I decided to find out where their chicken
comes from.
The first place I decided to check
was the Chick-Fil-A (CFA) on Logan Main Street. Since Logan is an agricultural
town, I wondered if the chicken was locally sourced, or if it at least came
from the state of Utah. I called in (unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the
young man who helped me) and asked him if he knew where the meat came from. He
told me that he thought the meat came from Colorado, but was packaged and
shipped from Texas. This lead me to the CFA website, in search of their
suppliers. I couldn’t find the names of any suppliers on their website, but
there is a Supplier Inquiry Form, giving the terms and conditions for those
interested in doing business with CFA (Supplier Inquiry). However, I did find a
list of common suppliers on another website, including the “National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, National Pork Board,
American Meat Institute, International Dairy Foods Association and National
Milk Producers Federation” (Chick-fil-A denies…).
The next
piece of information I found about CFA suppliers is about animal abuse. In
2014, the animal activist group Mercy for Animals released a video of chicken
abuse that was supposedly connected with CFA (Simon). The chicken farm where
the abuse took place is owned by Koch Foods, and CFA released a statement saying
they stopped working with Koch in April of 2013, stating that “All of [their]
suppliers must comply with rigorous animal welfare requirements” (Chick-fil-A
denies…).
I’m not
suggesting that Chick-Fil-A is unethical or filled with abuse, or that we
should all stop eating there. I enjoy their food and the environment. However,
it is difficult to find out exactly where their chicken comes from. The
information on their website is extremely limited, and the information is hard
to find anywhere else. That does make me a little nervous, and hopefully I
learn more in the future.
"Chick-fil-A Denies Getting Chickens from Abusive Supplier." - CBS46 News. WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation), 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
"Chick-fil-A Denies Getting Chickens from Abusive Supplier." - CBS46 News. WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation), 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
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