"butcher" news and stories

A Suffolk town refused to give permission to build a Tesco superstore in their neighborhood in 1997 and, since that time, local businesses and agriculture have flourished. Despite an overall decrease in the number of smaller, independent stores throughout Britain, the number of businesses in town has remained the same and the number of local/regional food suppliers increased from 300 to 370, meeting the demand from local butchers, bakers and greengrocers. The local shops primarily source from local sources, and have not found themselves to be limited in what they can offer their customers. In fact, they have slowly been expanding into more diverse foods and vegetables as suppliers find people to grow them.

Over the past decade, many other store proposals from developers have been turned down and the locals' position gets stronger after each refusal. The hardest part is shaking the mindset that values convenience and sometimes price, over quality and belief. The locals would rather know where their food is coming from, who is selling it to them and that they are supporting quality food in their community, than save a few pennies on carrots from elsewhere in the world at Tesco.

Stores like Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have already put effort into sourcing more local ingredients, which has made customers and local business people alike very happy as well as demonstrating that local foods can be utilized on a larger scale. This is useful to note because it is not possible for the Suffolk strategy to work everywhere; some areas are simply not suited to agricultural purposes. What the Suffolk example does show is that the local food movement can still thrive in a modern environment as long as people are committed to it.

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An undercover investigation revealed that some butchers in the UK were selling non-certified organic beef under an organic label. Some of the butchers were from small towns and knew their meat suppliers closely. They were willing to attest to the quality of the beef that they sold, even if they have not been willing or able to purchase organic certification for their shop. Others, however, simply claimed to use the term as "shorthand."

Because the organic label can command up to 5 times the price of conventional beef, there is a clear financial incentive for less scrupulous butchers to try and sell it as such. From the customer's perspective, it can be quite difficult, if not nearly impossible, to tell the difference between organic and non-organic beef based on physical appearance and the scientific methods are not a guarantee. Relying on certification continues to be the most trustworthy method, but is it actually doing a disservice to small businesses, like some butchers, who say they can't afford the £300-£400 to become certified?

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