Perdue Buys Niman Ranch, Expands Specialty Meat Business

You know an trend - in this case sustainably and humanely raised market animals - is hitting its stride when major "traditional" players start buying in via acquisition.  Yesterday Perdue, a major family-owned poultry company, announced it had purchased Niman Ranch.

According to the New York Times, "Niman operates one of the largest pastured pig operations in the country, knitting together the output of hundreds of small farmers."

While pursuing financial growth through acquisition, Perdue is also making strides to come to the "good food" side of the table, including leveraging Niman's expertise in animal welfare.  Perdue has recently claimed to eliminate antibiotics in half of their chickens (and let's hope the other half follows soon...)