The Ethical Butcher has announced the launch of its wholesale business to offer regeneratively-farmed meat to restaurants, pubs, and hotels.
Founders Farshad Kazemian and Glen Burrows are working with chefs and restaurants including Silo, Native, and the Warehouse at the Conduit, London.
The Ethical Butcher only works with farms that are actively improving the environment by using their animals to rebuild ecosystems and restore nutrition to the soil, locking carbon into the ground. In the best cases these systems can lock away more carbon than the animals release, making this carbon-negative production.
The Ethical Butcher supplies only 100% pasture-fed beef and lamb that is certified by the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association and from farms that use regenerative farming practices. Parkland venison is sourced from Packington Estate, where the animals are culled to maintain a balanced ecosystem.
Also on offer will be free-range, outdoor-reared pork and chicken from farms that use a soy-free feed. The UK imports around 3.3 million tonnes of soy annually, almost 90% of which is used in animal feed, with the majority being used for poultry and pork. Most of the soy comes from South America, where soy plantations are a key driver of deforestation.
Head of business development Tom Cripps, said: “We're aiming to change the food system for the better by creating a new supply chain for small-scale regenerative farmers around the UK. We source whole carcass beef, lamb, pork, poultry and venison from the most ethical, regenerative food producers we can find and give them access to market through our online retail operation and now our wholesale offering. We hope that operating at wholesale scale is what is really going to change the industry for the better.”