This week I received a reply from Chipotle, and they said that they would not be able to grant me an interview, and that I should look at their website for any info that I wanted.  So that was not the ideal reply, but at least they got back to me relatively soon.  I am now exploring different topics to do my presentation on including no-till farming, and other innovations that have appeared in the farming world recently.  I know a few farmers who manage their fields using no-till methods, so I think that will probably be the route that I chose.       

This week, I was away for most of the week, so I was not able to make much progress.  I did call the Burlington Chipotle, but they said that all interview questions have to go through the corporate headquarters so I will call them on Monday.   

This week was a big week for the letters and e-mail to Chipotle.  After about seven or eight revisions, the e-mail to Chipotle was finally ready to be sent off on Thursday.  After changing a few things around with the e-mail, I sent a version to Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle requesting an interview. Even if I don't get a response, it's still worth a shot.  Hopefully I will hear back within a week.  I also have plans to call the Burlington Chipotle this week.     

This week, I met with my in school advisers about the idea of trying to interview Chipotle about their commitment to family farms.  I have drafted a letter that I will send to Chipotle via e-mail, and I am working on a script for when I call them.  I will turn in the draft of the letter on Monday, and hopefully, I will have contacted them by Wednesday this coming week.    

This week, I finished a book about farming which I had gotten for Christmas, Folks, This Aint Normal, by Joel Salatin, a family farmer in Virginia who farms using sustainable methods.  In this book, he explores how our industrial food system is "not normal," and he shows how on his farm he is trying to change that, and he also includes simple tasks that the reader can complete to enjoy their local food scene even more.  In one part, Salatin describes his relationship with the restaurant chain, Chipotle.  He is a supplier of meat for their restaurant located near Salatins farm.  He describes how he was approached by the chain to see if he would be able to supply them with meat.  They wanted meat from his farm because of their pledge to get the majority of their meat from responsibly raised animals.  

That got me thinking about this class, and how there's a Chipotle in Burlington, and how they want to get their meat and vegetables from responsible family farmers.  You see where I'm going with this? So my idea is that I want to try to interview someone at the Burlington Chipotle about how they think that they are helping the Vermont Family Farm, and where they get their local food, for starters.  I brought this up with one of my mentors, Kate Carroll, and she suggested that I find out as much as I can about Chipotle before I contact them.  I have found out quite a bit, and in this coming week, I will be figuring out what I want to ask them, and then contacting them.  Hopefully by next week, I will be in contact with them about an interview.         

Hello folks, the weekly update is here.  This week was winter break for me, so I was not as active with this project as I could have been, but I have been thinking about what direction I want to take the second half of the course.  I addressed this in last weeks post, so I will not be redundant and talk about the same things that I did last week.  I will say that I have to do a little talking with my mentors about what direction I want to take this half, and I will let all of you know about that in next weeks post.   

Here it is, the first of many Sunday updates to all of you out there wondering what this group of Vermont high school students are doing to explore the Vermont family farm.  This week has been the first week since we met to receive the tech kits that Mr. O'Leary put together for us.  And during that week, I have been thinking about what I want to focus on for my project.  In the first stage of the course, I focused on the effects that GE products would have on the Vermont Family Farm, but for the second part of the course, I am thinking I might want to explore a different area of the Vermont Family Farm.  I have been interested in some of the new practices, technologies, and methods that have been developed or used recently.  Some of those include no till, using perennial grasses as cover crops, methane digesters, and to tie it back into the first half of the year, GEs.  I still have a little planing to do to see if this will work out, but I will keep all of you posted about the next project.