The owners of The Gibsons Butcher are helping local meat and poultry producers get licensed to sell their products to local stores and restaurants and at farmers’ markets.
Shannon Vanderwoerd of The Gibsons Butcher said after talking to customers, people who raise their own animals and bring them in to be butchered, and just driving around the community, she noticed the growing number of local farms raising pigs, cattle and poultry.
And that got her thinking about offering some of that meat for sale at the shop.
In order for farmers to sell to Vanderwoerd and her husband Adam, they need to be licensed by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) as a Class D meat producer.
Class D licence holders can sell to retailers, restaurants and at farmers’ markets.
After talking with VCH about the steps needed to become licensed, Vanderwoerd decided to arrange a course for local producers where they could get the province’s SlaughterSafe designation and some extra instruction from a certified slaughterer and from Adam, a professional butcher.
“We decided to make it a whole experience,” she said. “We turned it into a day of training… SlaughterSafe doesn’t teach you how to slaughter [or butcher]. Not only did they get the SlaughterSafe training, but they learned how to properly slaughter the animal and how to butcher the animal.”
More than a dozen people signed up for the May 26 class, including Raquel Kolof of Hough Road Farm in Gibsons.
Kolof moved to the Sunshine Coast from the Lower Mainland four years ago and is raising heritage breeds, including free-range Berkshire pigs. She said as a farmer she’s committed to high standards and encouraging consumers to shift to meat from small farms like hers, and the potential to reach more customers by having a Class D licence is exciting.
“I’m so proud of the product – the pigs that I produce – and I feel like if people are going to eat meat, this is the meat to eat. When Shannon and Adam offered that [class] it was the clear choice to get more of my meat to more people … and I feel it’s a great chance to educate.”
During his time in opposition, Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons of the NDP worked to get licensing rules that would allow local producers to kill and butcher animals for sale locally, instead of having to go through abattoirs on the Lower Mainland.
The government of the day responded by creating the Class D licence and a Class E licence that allows for sales of a smaller number of animals directly to consumers.
Simons is currently one of the MLAs on the legislature’s agriculture committee, which is just getting started on a review of how well the meat producer licensing has worked. He said the program has now expanded to 10 regional districts across the province, and he’s glad to see local producers and retailers like The Gibsons Butcher taking advantage of the opportunity.
“It promotes sustainable agriculture and promotes local food,” he said. “I think our local economy benefits a lot. What the retailers need is a consistent and reliable supply [of local meat],” he said.
Vanderwoerd told Coast Reporter she wasn’t surprised by the response to their first class, and she’s confident that there are enough interested farmers out there that they could easily fill more classes.
She said before they take the next step, they want to see how local consumers respond. “We’re waiting to see. We want to see how badly the community wants the meat. It is going to be a higher price-point. It’s organic, it’s natural, it’s local and it’s not made in mass production… This is the highest quality meat.”
According to Vanderwoerd, the class has already connected them with potential sources for local beef, pig, lamb, duck, chicken, turkey and bison.
Kolof has no doubt the demand will be there, once people become more aware of the number of local producers. “The Coast has a massive potential to be a food producer, not only for the Coast, but for the Greater Vancouver district,” she said.
