"Factory farmed meat doesn't cost much on paper, when you go to the store. But it costs a lot to society," stated the thick French-accented Ariane Daguin. "I can sleep at night because I know I have a product that comes from an animal that hasn’t been mistreated."
Daguin is the CEO and cofounder of D’Artagnan, a leading purveyor of the first domestically sold organic poultry and free-range meat among other products. If you're not familiar with their products and iconic logo from their appearance at retailers like Wegmans, Dean & Deluca and ShopRite, you've likely had D’Artagnan at one of the 7,500 restaurants that serve their products. In fact, Daguin's partnership with top restaurants like Daniel, French Laundry, Alinea and Le Pigeon, whose James Beard-winning chef Gabriel Rucker referenced his preference for D’Artagnan products in its cookbook, are an integral factor in how she was able to build the organic poultry market and generate demand for these products.
Founded in 1985 in New Jersey, Daguin sought to introduce the first organic, free-range chicken to the United States, years before the USDA acknowledged the standard with regulation of the "organic" label we know well today. Knowing that chefs preferred these quality products and that they were rare to find domestically, these budding relationships generated word of mouth growth for her business, as chefs trusted Daguin's ability to manage high quality standards with farmers.
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