Chipotle’s Pulled Pork and What it Means for the Company and the Industry
Forbes
By Nancy Gagliardi
January 16, 2015
Part of Chipotle’s value proposition is to use meat that is raised ‘responsibly’ with husbandry practices that are more aware of animal welfare and sustainability. Recently in a routine audit, the company found a violation in which a supplier had failed to follow specific guidelines concerning the housing for the animals. What happened next sent a powerful message to consumers, suppliers and other companies with high sustainability and responsibility standards: they stopped serving pork in nearly 1/3 of their 1,800 restaurants.
Journal of Economic Perspectives
By Raluca Dragusanu, Daniele Giovannucci, and Nathan Nunn
2014
A study led by Harvard doctoral student Raluca Dragusanu says Fair Trade does indeed achieve many of its goals, although “on a modest scale” relative to the size of producing countries’ economies. One weakness is that workers do not necessarily benefit from Fair Trade practices. In one Mexican study, wages for Fair Trade workers were just 7% more than for comparable workers, although the farms’ prices were 130% higher than those of conventional farms.
Barbarians at the Farm Gate: Hardy Investors are Seeking a Way to Grow Their Money
The Economist
January 3, 2015
Over the past 20 years, the 12% annualized returns for farmland have caused some investors to dub it “gold with a coupon.” It is uncorrelated with stocks and bonds, is relatively resistant to inflation and less sensitive to economic shock but, because of the sector’s risks and complexity, investing in farmland requires patience, expertise and the willingness to get one’s hands dirty.
US SIF
2014
The total US-domiciled assets under management using SRI strategies expanded from $3.74 trillion at the start of 2012 to $6.57 trillion at the start of 2014, an increase of 76%. $6.20 trillion in US-domiciled assets at the beginning of 2014 were held by 480 institutional investors, 308 money managers and 880 community investment institutions that apply various environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in their investment analysis and portfolio selection. Learn more by downloading the report.
