His cattle are raised by a method that is probably familiar to the Aztec growers of cacao. The waxing and waning of the moon seems to be involved, along with the more commonplace activities of grazing the creatures on organic pasture and providing them with supplementary feed that doesn't contain antibiotics or hormones.

The meat that results has a different color from the horror movie vermilion of supermarket cuts and its fat tends to marble the flesh throughout, making it more tender after cooking.

It tastes better, too, with the same discernable difference of depth found between boxed and bottled wines. Of course, it costs more. But France is a country that treats meat with respect as a treat and can produce perfectly satisfying meals without depending upon it as the key ingredient.

Americans may soon be able to experience the difference. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to allow a "Grass Fed" label to meat that has been produced exclusively that way. It would signify that 99 percent of an animal's feed has come from grass or other natural forage.

Currently, beef can be labeled grass-fed on a commercial producer's own label, even if the cattle's diet contains only 75 percent grass -- a figure the beef industry says is the norm. The remaining percentage is covered by the diet -- predominantly corn and a cocktail of antibiotics -- the animals are fed during their incarceration for fattening up in the feed-lots prior to being dispatched to the abattoirs.

But these new conditions will be signaled by the imprimatur of the USDA.

Gary Weber, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association chief scientist and director of regulatory affairs, told the Chicago Tribune that the association was weighing the proposal. His concern was that nutritional claims made for grass-fed cattle may not have any scientific base.

"Whatever we do," he said, "we want to be science-based, we want to be factual, and we don't want to contribute to consumers being exploited in any way when people market beef or any food product."

Feeding cattle on grass is more expensive than the alternatives. Industrial cattle producers may be concerned that the beef market could reduce with the increased prices that would come with grass-fed meat. But the more the demand for it increases, the quicker prices will fall.

Monsieur Le Boucher Bio sells a particularly fine veal from which he cuts, then pounds flat, thin escalopes. Foam some butter in a saut� pan, turn them briefly in it on both sides till just catching here and there with gold, remove to a warm plate and deglaze the pan with a squeeze of a lemon to scrape up the goodness and pour over the veal with a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley.

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