FreshDirect and Amazon: Building Farm-to-Store Meat Operations

Whole Foods Market Inc. is also in the business.

The Wall Street Journal introduces the exciting new “single origin” concept to readers.

In grocery store cases stuffed with exotic grass-fed and organic meats, new “single-origin” cuts are taking the local food craze to new heights.

Retailers including Whole Foods Market Inc., FreshDirect, and Amazon.com Inc. are building farm-to-store meat operations that sate some consumers’ desires to trace their burger or bacon all the way back to an individual animal.

“They want to know where it came from, where it was born, where it was raised, where it was slaughtered,” said Rick Stein, vice president of

Internet retailer Amazon.com in June added “Single Cow” ground beef to its Fresh grocery delivery stores and has since filed a trademark application for the designation.

The product, sold in a handful of regions for $10 a pound, is described as being made from a blend of muscle cuts from individual Wagyu cows raised on a California ranch.