Niman Ranch led the nation in preserving and popularizing free-ranged, grass-diet based animal husbandry and meat production. While Niman's best-in-America pork division is centered in Iowa, its original cattle ranch has always been in coastal California. Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck discovered Bill Niman's beef in the 1990s and made it cool to eat beef again.
Now Bill and Nicolette Niman are fighting for their cattle's existence on their ancestral property. Last week, Nicolette Niman filed suit against the U.S. Park Service for trying to defy Congress and ban agriculture from Point Reyes National Seashore, where ranching has been going on since before white people even set foot there. An unsettled 2022 lawsuit, by three California environmental groups, argued that the Park Service’s continued leasing of seashore land to commercial beef and dairy ranches caused "ecological damage and threatened the region’s tule elk population." (Miniature tule elk were an issue in 1800 — the last time they were as plentiful as cattle in California.)
The U.S. Park Service capitulated and tried to bribe ranchers and dairy farmers to leave. The Nimans and one other ranch refused and now are fighting back. Nicolette Niman (a lawyer and bestselling author as well as a rancher) said that new restrictions have been placed on their ranch over the years, making it financially unfeasible to continue — and marking a significant shift in the use of their 800-acre property, part of which they own and part they lease from the Park Service. Over time, the lease has imposed more stringent restrictions on operations, including a reduction in the number of cattle the ranch can host.
It sounds to us like she has a real good case: “Defendants’ refusal to consider allowing farming and ranching to continue, even though Congress has specifically authorized fefendants to do so, violates the law and will cause significant and irreparable harm to this agricultural heritage, to the environment, to the community, to the regional food supply, and to the health of the nation.” The Nimans no longer have a part in Niman Ranch but Iowa owes them a huge debt for what they did for our consumers and pig farmers. You go, Nicolette.
Monday deals
• Trostel's Greenbriar (5810 Merle Hay Road, Johnston) is running a chef's special through Wednesday.
• Eastside Eddie’s (3517 E. 26th St., Des Moines) Monday special is a burger with domestic beer, soft drink or well drink for $10. Those are good, generously sized burgers too.
• Centro (1003 Locust St., Des Moines) offers half-price pizza and Peronis on Monday.
• Who's on First (810 E. First St., Ankeny) has steak night on Monday, and it's an 8-ounce filet with salad, mashed potatoes and beans for $22.95
• Pelican Post (265 50th St., West Des Moines) has a special today on hot beef sandwiches, $10.95 until 4 p.m.
• Tito’s Lounge (3916 Urbandale Drive, Urbandale) offers all-you-can-eat wings Mondays.
• Monday brings prime rib specials to both Chicago Speakeasy (1520 Euclid Ave., Des Moines) and Christopher's (2816 Beaver Ave., Des Moines).
• Johnny's Hall of Fame (302 Court Ave., Des Moines) has $12 burger baskets on Mondays and Fridays.
• Urban Cellars (640 S. 50th St., West Des Moines) offers $60 wine dinners for two on Mondays including two entrees with soup or salad, a dessert and a bottle of wine.
• Club 2000 (422 Indianola Road, Des Moines) has a burger basket with fries deal Mondays for $9.
• Red Lobster's Monday special is lobster and shrimp scampi with a side for $20.
• Paula's (524 Elm St., Valley Junction) has a Monday special homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwich for $12.50.
• Price Chopper delis offer two-piece, bone-in fried chicken dinners, with two sides and a roll, for $6 on Mondays.
• Fareway has deals this week on Bibigo frozen dumplings and appetizers at $2.50 a package, St. Louis spareribs at $2.99/pound, fresh rainbow trout at $11.99/pound and $2.99 six packs of Guinness with $20 in meat purchased.
— Jim Duncan, jd91446@aol.com |
