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Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee has written a terrific piece about Niman Ranch in this week's Bee food section (registration may be required). If you are unfamiliar with Niman Ranch, it is a collective of more than 500 family farmers that raise traditional breeds of cattle, sheep, and pigs, raise them in the open and feed them only natural, hormone-free feeds. Niman meats tend to sell at a 10-30 percent premium over conventionally raised meat.

One of the story points that caught my eye was that Bill Niman (pronounced NY-man) thinks that we here in America need to eat less, but better quality food (ain't it the truth!).

"People have to begin to eat less," he says, wrapping up a calm dissertation on how cheap meat, big portions, diabetes, obesity and other health issues all are related.

Give people better-tasting meat, he figures, and they'll get their fill faster, help themselves to fewer servings and thereby safeguard their health.

Niman has also been lobbying chefs to make dishes that use more parts of the animal, such as kidneys, liver, tripe, and tongue. Toward that end, collaborating with Janet Fletcher of the San Francisco Chronicle, he has published a new cookbook, the Niman Ranch Cookbook that include such special cuts. (Forward by Mark Bittman of the NYTimes)