Beef goes upscale: can the small-batch foodie revolution transform the red meat market?

• Author: Beato, Greg

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AT THE BELCAMPO Meat Company in Larkspur, California, the primary merchandise is presented almost as fetishistically as the iPhones at an Apple store. Sirloin tip cutlets, whole rabbits, Chateaubriands, and a dozen or so other varieties of raw meat rest on white platters lined with brown butcher paper. Lemons and bundles of rosemary serve as understated but striking visual sidekicks. The intended effect: plenitude, judiciously curated.

In the meat department of the average supermarket, by contrast, plastic-wrapped packs of econo-beef are herded onto crowded shelves, pressed up indiscriminately against giant value-sacks of boneless chicken. It's cruel and unappetizing. But at Belcampo, the tenderloin filets have room to roam.

In addition to Belcampo's Larkspur location, which includes a casual restaurant along with the meat boutique, the company operates its own farm and slaughterhouse about 300 miles to the north, near the Oregon border. There, on rolling grasslands with a view of Mt. Shasta, future cutlets and filets grow to certified organic maturity in an environment that sounds nearly as nurturing as a top-flight preschool. "We practice low-stress animal handling techniques, respecting each species' innate mental and emotional characteristics," Belcampo's website advises. "We pay special attention to each breed's ability to thrive in Northern California, creating homes for our swine and poultry that allow them to be both comfortable and stimulated."

Belcampo, in other words, is a carefully crafted antidote to meat's image as a highly industrialized foodstuff with no provenance whatsoever, a.k.a, pink slime. It owns and operates every link in its production chain and thus can exercise maximum control over its processes and ensure customers maximum transparency as it aims to deliver pink prime--healthier, kindlier, more sustainable meat.

Respecting the innate mental and emotional characteristics of the highly sensitive Northern California consumer, Belcampo regularly trucks in its farmers to Larkspur for lunchtime eat-and-greets, where they are subjected to intensive but ostensibly humane grilling from ethical carnivores hungry for a deeper connection to their burgers.

Such tactics are hardly novel at this point, at least in Marin County. What distinguishes Belcampo is the seamlessness and ambitious reach of its vision. Founder Anya Fernald, a veteran foodie who has worked as a baker, chef, and cheesemaker and spent...