Top chefs beef up campaign to save butchers

Rosemary Shrager, Brain Turner and Jay Rayner are just some of the prominent names who have come out in support of the movement to help arrest the decline in numbers of the Great British butchers shop, once a staple fixture of our towns and villages.

The big names are coming out in favour of backing the Meat Crusade campaign, launched by Yorkshire farmer and wholesale butchers John Penny & Sons, in a bid to try to encourage the general public to support their local butchers in the face of their declining numbers on our nation’s high streets.

More than 15,000 butchers have closed since the mid-1990s, with supermarkets and out of town retail outlets proving more popular with the public when it comes to buying meat.

Since its launch was revealed by the Yorkshire Post earlier this month the campaign has won widespread approval, backing and publicity, with organisers hoping to raise awareness of the high quality service, value, knowledge and provenance that butchers have to offer.

Celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager, who runs cookery classes at Swinton Park, near Ripon in North Yorkshire, said that backing local butchers not only helped the individual butchers, but the farmers and wholesalers who supply them too.

“It is so important to support them,” she said. “If we do not then they will go and then we really will miss them. These people know where all their food has come from, generally sourcing everything from the local area’s farmers.

“Local produce in Yorkshire is fantastic and your butcher is one of the best places to buy this.”

Ms Shrager also pointed out that the meat sold in butchers was generally in-season and therefore very much at its best. She said that the cost difference too was very little between butchers and supermarkets but that the quality was far better.

Yorkshire-born television chef Brian Turner is also among those to have leant his backing to the Meat Crusade. He said: “Your local butcher really cares about the meat he sells and the people he sells to. He deserves your support – let’s not lose him now.”

And Tom Parker Bowles, food writer and broadcaster, said: “The steady loss of our local butchers is cause for serious alarm.

“Just two months back my favourite butcher fell victim to a fierce rent hike and was forced to move out. The whole area is still reeling from the loss.

“Because butchery is both art and science. Not just in the physical act of separating different cuts from a carcass, but the wealth of knowledge any serious butcher has; where the meat comes from, how long the beef was hung, what cuts are better suited to braising than roasting.

“Support your local butchers, for the sake of the community, and your taste buds too.”

Also among those backing the campaign are food writer and One Show Broadcaster Jay Rayner, food campaigner and author Joanna Blythman and broadcaster Matthew Fort.

The Meat Crusade was launched around the time that the Yorkshire Post began its own Buy Yorkshire campaign, attempting to encourage companies to chose regional firms when creating their supply chains and to highlight existing buy local campaigns.

Campaign organisers aims to highlight the ways butchers trade by emphasising the low food miles involved. It is also encouraging butchers to return to the old-fashioned delivery services or initiate an out-of-hours pick-up service at the local pub. It also may see some butchers choose to open late to fit more with consumer lifestyles.