Fueled by the growing demand for naturally raised meats, particularly from white-tablecloth restaurants and a growing market of elite, conscientious eaters, Niman grew the cooperative “both one customer and one animal at a time,” he says. Before long, he began adding one family farm at a time. Today the network has grown from a complete, vertically integrated operation in a small town on the coast north of San Francisco to a network of 500 family-owned farms from North Carolina to Washington State, including Niman’s original home ranch where he still lives and ranches.

On his ranch and at each independent farm in the cooperative, Niman demands adherence to strict protocols for sustainability and natural production. In beef production, Niman ranchers raise only Angus, Hereford, and Short Horn breeds, chosen for their well-marbled, tender beef and depth of flavor. The cattle are never fed growth-promoting antibiotics or given hormones. They eat only all-natural feed, never any meat or animal by-products, such as chicken feathers, chicken litter, or fish meal. The cattle also graze on pasture for 14 to 18 months. When they reach about 900 pounds, they are finished on a diet of barley, corn, wheat, soy, molasses, and hay for well-rounded flavor.

At the time of slaughter, ranchers accompany the cattle to the slaughterhouse so the cattle have a familiar person with them and experience less stress. If an animal shows stress, it is pulled from the line and calmed. (Niman contends stress hormones hurt the taste of the meat.) Niman uses only USDA slaughter facilities and requires that his animals be slaughtered first in the morning to prevent any cross-contamination.

Niman’s pork standards are no less stringent. The hogs are raised according to protocols developed by the Animal Welfare Institute. Whereas most hogs in the United States today are raised inside confinement factories, Niman hogs run, roam, and root on open pasture and in deeply bedded pens. They are weaned at seven weeks, which gives them time to build up natural antibodies. They are never given antibiotics or hormones and are fed only high-quality grains and natural ingredients (corn and soybean meal). Niman selects hog breeds for marbling, flavor, and tenderness, and for producing the extra-thick layer of back fat necessary for living outdoors.

Niman’s pork farmers rotate the hogs from field to field, allowing them to root in fallow areas, then replenish the land with manure from the hogs’ beds. This traditional system—what Bill Niman calls “raising hogs the old-fashioned way”—requires more time and work than the modern confinement methods, but, according to Niman, produces little to no odor, helps preserve water supplies, and sustains the land and community for future generations.

Niman lamb farmers aim to produce spring lamb flavor year-round. The farmers raise selected breeds (ones prized for meat, not wool) in the hills near Rio Vista, California, and on the open meadows of wild flowers and aspen groves in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in northern Utah. The California lambs are born in the winter and graze on grasses and clover. The Utah lambs are born mid-spring, from April until June, and graze in the fields of spring wildflowers. Basque sheepherders keep the lambs through the summer.

Like the cattle and hogs, Niman lambs are raised without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones. The lambs are finished in low-density feedlots—where there is no competition for feed or water—for a minimum of six weeks for best flavor. (Niman contends ample space reduces stress on the animal and promotes weight gain.) The lambs are fed a blend of corn, alfalfa, and other grains that Niman says contribute to marbling and an optimal flavor profile.

Though it’s been around for more than two decades, Niman Ranch has experienced a surge in growth in the past five years, thanks, Bill Niman says, to increased public awareness of the benefits of naturally raised and organic foods—to taste, to health, and to the animals and the environment. “I am always wonderfully surprised to find out we have a restaurant [as a customer] in Pueblo, Colorado, or Walla Walla, Washington,” he says. “It’s great to know there are people not just in the culture centers and university towns [buying naturally raised meats]. It’s in ordinary America where people are finally becoming more concerned about what they eat.”

Indeed, a nationwide survey conducted by Whole Foods in 2003 showed that when Americans—regardless of age, education, income level, and region—shop for beef and poultry, almost three-quarters (74 percent) are concerned about the presence of antibiotics in meat production. Quick-service chains are moving quickly to give consumers more natural choices: Arby’s has announced plans to become the first national quick-serve chain to sell only natural chicken. Panera Bread has introduced natural chicken in a selection of its sandwiches and salads. And Niman Ranch has products in test in at least two more national quick-serve and casual-dining chains. Small multi-unit quick-serves in Northern California, including Burgermeister, Metro Caffe, and Burger Joint, have featured Niman meats for years.

Consumer demand for natural choices, Niman says, will bring a paradigm shift to the quick-service industry: The business will no longer be about quickness and low prices, but about managing taste and food safety. “When they buy a hamburger for 59 cents, people understand there’s a certain amount of risk that goes with that purchase, or at least that there’s something happening to make it that cheap,” Niman says. “But now you have the opportunity to buy a $3 hamburger…and people are stepping up and voting with those purchasing dollars.” Slightly higher prices increase customers’ expectations for the quality of the raw ingredients, he says, and chains like Chipotle, Panera, and Arby’s are working to meet those expectations. “The bar,” Niman says, “is being raised.”

It’s exactly what Niman wanted to see happen: increased consumer awareness and a growing market for sustainably farmed, naturally raised ingredients. Ben Higgins, executive vice president of the California Cattlemen’s Association, sees similarly strong trends. “We have seen a tremendous growth in interest in the 12 months or so in the production of natural beef,” he says. “Not surprisingly, we are seeing more interest on the part of ranchers and cattlemen because they’re being paid well [to produce natural beef].”

Higgins says the beef cattle industry is moving from a commodity to a branded marketing structure. Niman agrees but contends that, as the larger-scale producers rush to respond to consumer demands, the picture is not that simple. “Among these commodity producers, everyone’s coming out with brands, and there is a lot of confusion in the marketplace,” he says. “The lack of standards out there is unfortunate. The branded programs are themselves becoming commodities. The big guys, realizing they have to have a ‘brand,’ are taking their commodity programs and saying a few buzzwords which are confusing the customer.”

Ideally, Niman says, those “big guys” in corporate agribusiness will devise a way to produce truly sustainable, natural meats, according to standards like Niman Ranch’s. “It will be really disturbing when the big corporations figure it out, because we may disappear, but that would be okay,” he says. “If they figure it out, we’re history, but our mission would have been accomplished, at least for the animals and the environment and the people eating the food.”

Meanwhile, Niman says, he and the hundreds of family farmers who make up the cooperative will continue production according to Niman’s strict protocols—producing great-tasting meat today and sustaining the land and the environment for future generations of animals and farmers. “We never expected the entire market, which is so huge, and we are happy to see we are being copied throughout the country,” he says. “It’s good for the animals, good for the people eating the meat, good for the environment. We are celebrating that.”