UNITED STATES-MEAT COMPANY FOUNDER CHALLENGES NEW OWNER.
Bill Niman built a $65 million empire on a simple idea that revolutionized the food world - that meat could be more than just what’s for dinner. It could be raised naturally, humanely and sustainably, better for people and the planet. Niman knew success would take time, but believed his methods would prove profitable.
But in nearly 30 years of existence, despite becoming the darling of high-end chefs and turning the brand into a household name, Niman Ranch never did turn a profit. In fact, it was broke. To save it from Bankruptcy Court, the East Bay company merged last month with its chief investor, Chicago ’s Natural Food Holdings LLC, and Niman was officially out.
The 64-year-old Bolinas man said he can live with losing the business he built from scratch. But he can’t stand quietly by, he says, while the new owners fundamentally change the brand that influenced an entire food movement.. He refuses to eat their products.
Officials from the company argue that the integrity of Niman Ranch’s meat program has never been better.
"We believe that our protocols are stronger, the auditing of the protocols more rigorous, and the current business model is more financially viable," said Niman Ranch CEO Jeff Swain.
Still, it prompts the question: Can idealism ever pay?
Many say Niman is the epitome of an idealist, whose mission was to change the way people eat and encourage them to think ethically about their food.
"He showed you can raise farm animals with commercial success, without resorting to exceedingly cruel practices," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States . "There are some people in the humane movement who don’t think there is any such thing as happy meat. But in the larger vision, Bill Niman led the pathway."
Commercially, Niman’s methods were unorthodox, the ideals of a hippie who had moved out West during the Vietnam War to avoid the draft by teaching school in the heart of farm country. Unlike mainstream producers, Niman forbid growth hormones, used antibiotics only when an animal became sick, and demanded that the livestock be raised on the open range and readied for slaughter in an uncrowded, Niman-owned feedlot.
Most commercial beef producers send weaned calves to a feedlot to grow and be finished on grain, but Niman’s cattle grazed on grass - virtually unheard of in the 1970s. Although standard beef cattle are most often slaughtered between 12 and 14 months, Niman didn’t slaughter them until 20 to 24 months, moving them at 14 months to his own feedlot where they were fattened on a vegetarian diet of grain for four or five more months.
"It’s almost double the cost to do it the way we were doing it," said Niman, who believes his results - perfectly marbled beef - were unrivaled.
Ken Bentz, an Oregon cattleman who has been ranching since World War II and subscribes to the same natural methods, wonders if it wasn’t a bit over the top.
"It was more extreme than what I would have done," he said. "He went far beyond what was expected because he was a fanatic for flavor. But it showed. He produced the best quality beef in the world."
Niman didn’t grow up on a farm. Still, he knew a thing or two about food. His father owned a grocery store in Minneapolis . Niman spent his youth shopping with his dad at farmers’ markets, and worked weekends stocking shelves and operating the cash register. By 21, he had earned a degree in anthropology and was enrolled in law school. But the Vietnam War was raging and Niman knew it was just a matter of time before he would be called up for duty. His college roommate had already been killed in the war he fiercely opposed.
He learned that he could get out of the draft if he volunteered to teach middle school as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 program to wipe out poverty in the United States . By 1968, Niman was teaching science to students in a poor cotton-growing community of the San Joaquin Valley . Eventually, he went back to school to get his teaching credential and got a school job in West Marin. It was there that he met his first wife, Amy Gettinger, who would later die in a horse-riding accident.
Spread in Bolinas
The couple decided they’d like a few acres to raise a couple of goats, chickens, hogs and horses. So they bought 11 acres in Bolinas for $1,800. Financially it was a stretch for the two teachers, but they made up the difference by moonlighting at a local cafe.
A cattle ranching neighbor, who had spent generations perfecting his livestock’s bloodlines, gave them six orphaned calves. Those became the foundation of the herd that would later become Niman Ranch.
Niman subsequently gave up teaching to work on his small farm, making his living by doing construction. He had also become politically involved in the small seaside town that was attracting intellectuals, writers, artists and others caught up in a burgeoning back-to-the-land food scene. He became friends with Orville Schell, a Bolinas activist and writer who would eventually become dean of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Schell temporarily moved into Niman’s chicken coop, and the pair bought hogs to raise and sell to friends and neighbors. Word spread quickly of their delicious pork, raised on pasture land and fed a steady diet of Nancy ’s organic yogurt that was past its sell-by date and barley.
In 1977, Niman and Schell bought 200 acres on the Bolinas coastline and began running cattle. In the beginning they were focused on breeding, shipping off the weaned calves to other ranches to be readied for slaughter. But in the 1980s the price of beef bottomed out under a government program to reduce an oversupply of dairy products on the market, which included buying up milk cows for slaughter. So the two decided to mature their cattle on grass for the gourmet market.
At the time, they called it Niman-Schell Ranch. But by the mid-1990s they were squabbling. Niman said it was over distribution of work and money.
"The problem was that he had it and I didn’t," Niman recalled, now chuckling.
Schell declined to comment.
In 1997 the two parted ways, and Niman took over the business. But even before they split, their all-natural meat was getting lots of buzz. Three of the Bay Area’s top restaurateurs - Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe in San Francisco and Margaret Fox of Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino - began serving Niman meat. The women took Niman under their wing, coaching him on what chefs looked for in a truly good cut of beef.
"We were very interested in organic and sustainable products and were fascinated by what Bill was doing," said Fox, now culinary director of Harvest Market in Fort Bragg . "We could taste the difference in the meat. It was incredibly delicious."
Switching to Niman was risky. "It was significantly more expensive than the other meats we were buying," Fox said. But she took a chance. Then she did something rarely heard of back then: Fox put Niman Ranch’s name next to the meat dishes on the menu. And diners were eating it up.
Soon, other restaurants were doing it - first with Niman Ranch, then with the names of farms that provided their produce. Despite the retail price for Niman Ranch products, sometimes twice that of supermarket meat, demand spread from top-drawer restaurants and specialty stores to national supermarkets and eventually even the fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill.
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