Americans eat more bison than ever, spurring debate over animals' diet and industry's future

American consumption of buffalo meat is at an all-time high, reinventing one of the oldest human-animal relationships on the continent, Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports. "New ranchers are coming in. Older ranchers are straining to build up herds, holding back breeding females from slaughter and thus compounding what retailers say is already a supply crunch." The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports buffalo-meat prices were up 28 percent last year for a rib-eye steak cut. Johnson's article focuses on operations west of the Mississippi River, but bison are raised and processed in the East, too. (NYT photo by Kevin Moloney)

"What happened, producers and retailers say, is that the buffalo, the great ruminant of the Plains — once endangered, now raised on ranches by the tens of thousands — has thundered into an era of growing buyer concern about where food comes from, what an animal dined on and how it all affects the planet," Johnson writes. The "foodie culture" has embraced the meat, which is high in omega-3 fatty acids, partly because new ranchers are feeding the animals only grass. That "is more natural for the animal and produces the kind of low-fat, environmentally sustainable product that they say best competes with beef for a place on the nation’s dinner table," Johnson writes.

"For the last two years, it’s been one of the fastest-growing categories in our meat department," said Theo Weening, the global meat coordinator for Whole Foods, one of the nation’s largest retailers of buffalo. Now ranchers and retailers say the market is at a tipping point where prices could soar so high that buyers back away.

Veteran ranchers say a consistent taste is needed to preserve the industry's growth, and that consistency can only come from a grain-based diet. "I’m not going to say one [diet] is better than the other," David E. Carter, the executive director of the National Bison Association, told Johnson. "People are moving forward from here in different ways, and we’ll let our customers tell us the answer." (Read more)