Social and environmental responsibility report. 2020-2021

The Ethical Butcher.

Social and Environmental 

Responsibility 

Impact report.  

2020-2021

Welcome

The Ethical Butcher was formed in 2020 with the express purpose of changing the nature of farming and reconnecting people with nature. We are changemakers, enablers and leaders. We are changing the market on the inside and enabling our farmers and customers to express their highest ideals to protect the planet, treat animals well, and live in harmony with nature. And we are at the leading edge of a new ethical wave sweeping through business. At the forefront of an expanding conversation and range of innovative practices across wider sectors in the movement from sustainable to regenerative. This movement understands that sustaining is not enough we need to repair and give back: regenerate.

As this is our first impact report, we include some background information and our history. We hope you enjoy reading about us, our mission and how we are achieving our aims. We believe that humans need to be humble in relation to nature; we are part of nature, and nature gives us life. So, we will try to be modest in our presentation of ourselves. Not too aggrandising but also not too shy, just an honest account of how we are getting on, including the things we need to work on.

This impact report covers our environmental performance and our social responsibility. We are delighted to be applying to become a Beneficial Corporation (Bcorp) which has prompted our writing of this impact report. Bcorp is an excellent thing to do because everything needed to gain certification has been something we believe any socially responsible and environmentally conscious business should do. 

We want to turn things upside down, especially the model of doing business. Traditional economics favours competition and self-interest. We believe in partnership with our suppliers, customers and staff; we all learn from each other in our aim to prove that business can be a force for good. Our principal partner is nature; we use a business model suffused with ethics and philosophy, science and environmental stewardship. You will find dozens of articles in our journal which outline our practices and ideals for the expert and newcomer to the world of ethical regenerative food production. Our aim is joined-up thinking, deep ecology and tackling many entrenched misconceptions about the potential role of farming in regenerating our endangered planet. We want to prove a business can work within the limits of nature, the highest ethical standards, and generate excellent health outcomes for our customers.

Whether you are a curious visitor, partner, investor, customer or supplier, please don’t hesitate to join our conversations we should be delighted to hear from you. 

Farshad Kazemian 

CEO and Founder

Regenerative food production

Agriculture has a huge planetary impact and a lot of damage has been done to global ecosystems, especially to the soil which supports us. We can change this. It is possible to change the impact of our food production drastically by changing the methods we use. This can go beyond mere sustainability and actually regenerate the land, improving biodiversity, locking carbon into the earth and returning fertility back to our soils.

This regeneration comes from a subtle but fundamental shift in mindset that our farmers share, the mindset shift implys that we can and must start to farm using methods that put back a little more than we take by elbowing and encouraging nature to thrive and restore, shifting from a Cartesian reductionism approach to one of holism with the belief that what is good for all is good for one and vice versa.

Soil health, perhaps the Earth's equivalent of 'gut health', is becoming much better regarded, as are the benefits of pasture as the vital organism in the relationship between atmosphere, habitat, wildlife, species, invertebrates, microbiomes and organic carbon. The role of grazing ruminants in this cycle of nutrients has always been crucial and is not starting to be understood. Humans need to redefine their place in the natural system to see ourselves as a part of nature rather than controlling it externally.

To this end, our farmers raise animals as naturally as possible. Dung nurtures the insects; hooves dig in the carbon, cut-sword allows a 'the rainforest' of the grassland. Hives of insects thrive on pasture and no-till keeps the soil's microbial infrastructure intact and preserves water. 

It's a system that respects the complex symbiotic relationship between the four basic ecosystem processes: the water cycle, the mineral cycle (including carbon), the flow of energy through the food chain and the community dynamics, or the relationship between different organisms. It adds up to an ecosystem of carbon sequestration - one of the greatest weapons against climate change. 

We are helping to define the term by creating an enduring threshold for what 'regenerative farming' actually means. We need to do this because 'regenerative' is becoming a marketing term. Outside of us, there are no robust standards, and soon there will be a wild-west of claims. We feel defensive and want to hold the line because we are not sloganeers. With our farmers, we want to make a difference and bring the meat industry back to its natural roots, one order at a time.

The Carbon issue -  Sequestration

Nature teaches us to be humble and respectful. We cannot claim to have a magic bullet, but we can claim to be heading in the right direction; we are on a journey of continuous improvement, one footprint after another.

Neil Harley  - Mywood Farm

Neil is a substantial investor in The Ethical Butcher. On one of his farm sites he has taken over 216 acres of arable land, which had been farmed conventionally for decades with standard arable monocrops that had steadily trashed the land through the use of tractors, combine-harvesters, and chemicals including pesticides, insecticides and chemical fertilisers. The soil was in poor shape when he took over the land, it was compacted, had poor friability and very low organic (carbon) content. This means that the soil had very little life in it, very few worms, beetles, insects, and very little bacteria and fungus.

Neil planted a diverse herbal ley on the land and introduced cattle to graze the new growth in strips being moved every 2 days in a 40+ day rotation meaning the land would rest for over 40 days after being grazed before being grazed again, this allows the flora and fauna to recover and restore.

As a business we realised that it would be very beneficial to have some metrics and certification to judge the efficacy of the system rather than relying on anecdotes so we decided to engage with Control Union’s certification regenagri.

Regenagri visited Neil’s farm for the first time in May 2021 and through a rigorous audit of both systems and process were able to certify Neil’s practices on this farm as regenerative, this was a game changer for us and allowed to state with certainty that the meat we sell from this farm is not just anecdotally regenerative but certified regenerative.

Apart from the important messaging of regenerative certification through our own channels we were able to offer wholesale supply of this meat to ready meals brand Wild Hare which is sold through Ocado, exciting in itself, but what is very exciting to us about this collaboration is that it represents a huge milestone of being the UK’s first supermarket listing of certified regenerative beef. 

Delving deeper

All of our grazing animals are Pasture for Life Association certified. PFLA are at the forefront of the pasture movement and their rigorous certification standards are guarded jealously. Our journal provides summaries of research showing the human health benefits of Pasture for Life meat. The entry, Pasture for Life: A solution to global warming, outlines the ecological benefits of pasture-based livestock production. Research spanning three decades suggests that grass-only diets can significantly alter the fatty acid composition and improve the overall antioxidant content of beef. PFLA webinar by Gillian Butler and Hannah Davis describing a European-wide, multi-agency research project into human health benefits. There are a large number of papers, which establish the nutritional value of meats produced our way. Red meat from animals offered a grass diet increases plasma and platelet n-3 PUFA in healthy consumers. What is regenerative agriculture  describes our regenerative mission and its deep-ecology links to permaculture, agroforestry and Silvopasture. 

Carbon footprint – supporting our claims

In sum, how can we claim our methods have the best carbon footprint

Never let sunlight hit bare earth. Sunlight hitting plant matter causes carbon to be taken from the atmosphere as CO2 and stored as carbohydrates, our farmers ensure that their land is always covered maximising ther potential for carbon sequestration.

Grain free 

The natural diet of grazing ruminats is pasture, grains have a higher carbon footprint due to the machinery and fertiliser used to plant, trend, harvest and transport them. This is one of the reasons that we do not support the feeding of grains to cattle or sheep.

Chemical use

Fertiliser and herbicide use is minimal and our farmers are working towards nil use as they are producedn using and from fossil fuels.

Machinery. 

Ruminants left to graze require very little human intervention meaning far less diesel is used. Our farmers must log the amount of diesel used and work towards more efficient modes of transport such as swapping our tractors for quad bikes.

No-till.

On farms that are mixed use producing arable and animal-based foods the arable part of the cycle should be cultivated using no till methods. Ideally the farm will be in rotation so that action of the animals and return to pasture and the land can restore the nutrients to the soil to help future crop growth. 

People all around the world are shouting at the oil industry 'leave the oil in the ground'. We need another call 'leave the soil alone'. The earth's biggest carbon sink, if the soil becomes pasture, then the millennium-old cycle of human-animal-nature is restored and you have the potential for a 'rainforest of the grassland'. And, as all these new wonderful books on fungi and mycelium show we have an 'underground microbial carnival of interconnectedness' which is best left undisturbed.' [x].

Put simply, regenerative agriculture is a term that describes farming principles and practices that can reverse the damage done to the environment by the industrial food system. The principles of regenerative agriculture take in everything from soil health and the carbon cycle to biodiversity, land management, animal welfare and more, and draw from decades of scientific and applied research by the global communities of organic farming, agroecology, holistic management and agroforestry.

Farmer partners

We are much more than a 'to-market' end of the supply chain.  Our relationship with our farmer suppliers is innovative, facilitative and generous.  Our farmers are more than suppliers; they are partners.  They are partners in the strictly business sense (owning 9.8% of our business) and the vital but intangible sense of commitment, shared expertise, investment of resources and time.

More than 50% of our beef sales come from our farmer investors, who own 9.8% of our company.  Some of our Farmers have been with us from the start and have been stalwart advisers, and they provide members of our advisory board.

The economics of conventional farming means that even farmers who are committed to doing the right thing for the planet and animal welfare and forced by market conditions to compromise their principles. (or to sell their fantastic products at unsustainable supermarket prices). We work practically with our farmer-partners to find new solutions in production and promise a route to market if their breeding methods are sustainable and, preferably, regenerative. 

Our farmers benefit from our digital assets.  We visit our farms, create digital assets and media packs, including interviews. We help devise and tell the farmer’s and farm's story, which we share with the farmer with an aerial video of the farm, which they can use on their website or social media. We introduce each partnering farm to the community and tell their story to our crowd, customers, and social media audience (currently around 50k, including our customer list). We connect our farmers with press outlets and, where possible, get them featured in the media through our P.R. activities and collaborations with celebrity chefs and our wider network. 

Without our farmer partners we would not have been able to bring to market yet more products that take carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it into the soil, we would not be able to supply foods which are demonstrably better for people than industrial meat production and we would not able to restore the natural cycle of ruminant, soil, earth, sunlight, water and humans

Change begins at home.

The Ethical Butcher as driver of change.

Exquisite Range, the parent company of Ethical Butcher, was 100% of sales was started in 2014 by Farshad Kazemian and provided high quality but not the exceptionally quality regenerative meats of Ethical Butcher standard to the restaurant trade.  The Ethical Butcher has eclipsed Exquisite Range, and has profoundly changed our wholesale offer. 

Now, 90% of Exquisite Range beef, 50% chicken, 50% Lamb and 95% pork is of Ethical Butcher range quality. 

Our B2C offer was a huge challenge. Now we are helping restaurants to navigate the line between tight margins and increasing customer demands for ethics, traceability and environmental standards. Exquisite Range is helping those many Chefs who are concerned about the provenance of their food. Our practices and reputation are their stellar guarantee of the qualities they are looking for. Our selected partners include Barings, Burro e Salvia, the Duke Wanstread, Players social, Withers Global advisors, The Pelican All Saints Road, Thomas Franks, Clays, Native, Silo, and The Warehouse at The Conduit and Appricity.

Given the pressures on the restaurant trade to compete in highly competitive market we have shown that it is possible to change the B2B market profoundly. We plan to produce our sustainable meats at a scale that will enable Exquisite Range to move to 100% regenerative supply. 

True Cost accounting

Our business model is to restore humanities balance with nature. and we use the principles of 'true cost accounting' which Prince Charles among others promote. 

We believe that cheap goods mean someone is not being paid fairly: the farmer, the driver, the packer, the butcher, the earth, the animal, the biosphere, even the health of the consumer. And the cost can be catastrophic.  We are exemplars of true cost accounting where costs are not out-sourced, and we are showing how the economy must be to contribute to a thriving world—an education that we pass onto our suppliers. 

https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/true-cost-accounting-conference-videos/

Profitability cost.

We turn down an incessant barrage of offers for products that have the potential for high returns but which do not meet our standards.  These standards are not a written system of metrics, although we are working on this, so watch this space. For example, one pig producer might produce rare breeds (iron age pork); another producer will produce livestock using regenerative mob grazing.  Each offer from producers is evaluated flexibly, with ethical principles as an Ethos rather than a metric. That way, we enable farmers to do their best with local conditions and encourage them to innovate. This causes a problem for us. In short, because we do not operate at industrial farming levels, our farmers do not have the resources to provide scientific analysis.  But we can look at a beautiful pasture and see water retention, multiple thriving species, healthy soil, diverse habitat and well cared for animals!

Nothing in nature works on its own. Neither do we. 

Despite 50 years of wildlife programmes showing the ‘survival of the fittest’ model of nature in fact all of nature is deeply interdependent.  Nothing in nature exists in a silo, there are no isolated systems everything depends on symbiotic relations with other systems

Following natural processes, our business model is based on collaboration and co-operation, within ethical limits, of course.  We have an open-source ethos to knowledge and innovation. For example, we offer free advice when non-suppling farmers come to us and ask how we achieve gains in production. We share innovations with our whole community; we are changemakers, educators and enablers throughout our supply chain. 

Facing multiple crises.

The last decades have been the most difficult since the great depression of the 1930s. The 2008 financial crisis rocked the world economy to its core. The strategies used by governments, quantitative easing and austerity, may have stopped the collapse of the economy by the legacy of these actions has created an extremely difficult trading environment. 

These tools have directly clashed with the imperatives of the climate crisis. If the £trillions used to bail out the system had been employed to build a sustainable economy, we would not be on the cusp of an impending planetary calamity. We are facing the 6th Great Extinction. The planet is in danger of becoming inhospitable to human life as we know it. There is no argument that drastic, root and branch reform of our way of doing business is needed in every sector, principally in the two most despoiling sectors, fossil fuel and food production. This is not just a UK matter but a global problem where the world faces the challenge of producing enough calories to feed a growing population using increasingly sterile land. Globally, the tension between massive agri-chemical and technological solutions butts up against the need to support local indigenous food production to regenerate the land, retain people's relationship with nature and provide employment to local communities. 

Brexit has created many pressures on standards, and Covid has damaged the world economy on a scale equal to the 2nd world War. We now live in a world of infinite debt ($300trillion: IMF) that will never be repaid, although every sinew of production and natural labour is being squeezed in a pointless attempt to pay back the unpayable. The 2021 Russian invasion of Ukraine has thrown the world into further turmoil. It will have a massive effect on global food production.

We are faced with a choice, be part of the problem or work toward the solution. On the positive side, there are tremendous forces, from the UN to COP, NGOs, and hundreds of thousands sustainable businesses pushed on by citizens and consumers making individual choices attempting to avert disaster. We aim to tackle the problems head-on. 

Some argue that capitalism is the problem, but we disagree. The current world economic system may be egregious in many respects but well run socially and environmentally responsible businesses can be part of the solution. People want to trade; trading is as fundamental to human nature as language. Trading is creative, and how people have exchanged their needs and wants since the beginning of history. 

We cannot solve the world's problems; multiple solutions at different scales are needed; however, we aim to show how business can thrive and be a force for change.  The problem is not trading; it's how it is done, or to coin a phrase, it’s not the cow, it’s the how.

It is obvious that the world's problems will not be solved without farmers. Generations of farmers know this; the land contains vast reservoirs of carbon that have to stay locked into the ground, and the soil is the Earth's greatest carbon sequestration technology.  All the space-age science fiction technologies for carbon capture proposed by governments are as nothing compared with the already existent global sequestration technology of the soil’s natural carbon cycle.  Farmers doing the right this are the Earth's and humanity's only chance of survival. Our business model is to show how this can be done while meeting people's need for nutritious, healthy meats. 

The education cycle.

Our farmers, customers, scientists, investors, staff, chefs and collaborators form a virtuous circle of knowledge.

We are very proud of our journal written by our creative director Glen Burrows who is unashamedly evangelical about the role of meat in human nutrition and in sustaining a beautiful ecosystem.  Glen is a polymath who combines deep ecology, science, farming, nutrition, spirituality and love of good food and cooking.  With his background as a photographer all these are combined into an eco-aesthetics. 

Through our social media posts we educate our customers about regenerative agriculture; the benefits of livestock; the nutritional benefits of meat, proteins and fats; ecology; the science behind climate change and so on..  Our customers educate us through the formal customer feedback mechanisms discussed elsewhere and their prolific engagement with us on multiple platforms. Our customers are educating us about the tolerances they have for 'true cost accounting. Our Journal presents some of the extensive peer-reviewed evidence of the health-supporting and deficiency remediating features of meat consumption.

Environmental education is a crucial part of business strategy. We make a film of every supplier-farm showing how the farmers are contributing to the battle against climate change, restoring natural habitats and high animal welfare standards Blogs, Journal articles, media presentations and talks form the backbone of our social media interactions.  These articles are often not related to a particular product but are straight-up educational provisions. A Facebook post on environmentally damaging agricultural production in Almeria in Spain, which produces up to 1/3 of Europe's fruit and vegetables, attracted 500,000 impressions. This paper outlined how these vegetables are entirely detached from natural processes in an agri-techno dystopia. 

Our Journal 

Our Journal is an ever-expanding educational resource on the impact of industrial farming and the solutions. We correct the misapprehensions about farming and show that while animal production can be devastating for the planet, it need not be.  Livestock production can play a vital role in restoring the natural balance between the biosphere, humanity, society, business and natural ecology.  ‘The thermodynamics of farming’. ‘The eternal dance of carbon’. ‘The problem with soy’. ‘#REGENAUARY Why grass needs to be grazed, and grazers need grass’. ‘Can cows and trees save the planet?’ ‘Just sunlight and rainwater. ‘What is regenerative agriculture?’

We publish and ongoing series of articles on the benefits of regenerative agriculture, meat and fats on human health.  ‘Fats - Why animal-based fats are optimal.’ ‘Animal-based nutrition - Part 1’. ‘Proteins. Eating for mental health’. ‘The importance of protein for older men’. ‘Liver is nature's true superfood’.

We even talk about our profound spiritual connection with life and our relations with the universe. ‘The first day of autumn - The time of Mabon’. ‘Look up tonight for the Draconid meteor shower’. ‘Lyrid Meteor Shower’. ‘Ostara - The Spring Equinox’. ‘A time of rebirth’. ‘The importance of connecting humanity to nature’

The #Regenuary Movement

Back in 2020 we coined a new word and started a movement with one simple Facebook post that received a million organic impressions. Since then the concept behind regenuary and the movement has grown with the term trending globally in January and beyond throughout the last three years.

Regenuary started a simple intellectual challenge to the movement of veganuary that encourages people to pledge to eat a purely plant based diet throughout January. We considered that message was incomplete as there was no call to source your foods ethically as long as they excluded animal products.

Regenuary 2022 saw events taking place throughout the month. Eco-minded restaurant Native launched a special six-course menu designed to celebrate the British regenerative farming cycle, with dishes focused around vegetables and utilising ingredients that would otherwise go to waste.

Elsewhere, The Culpeper Family – the group behind London venues The Culpeper, The Duke of Cambridge and The Green – is ran a two-day event dedicated to the topic. Taking place on 20 and 21 January, this involved an open discussion about how we can restore our food systems and the challenges involved, with a line-up featuring the likes of The Cornwall Project’s Matt Chatfield and Richard Ballard of Zero Carbon Farms

Regenuary conversations - Podcast

A natural extension of the regenuary movement was to start a podcast with people we call ‘regenetarians.’ A reegenetarian is someone actively involved in regenerative agriculture, waste reduction or just a keen supporter of the idea, this can include the farmers and chefs but also brand owners, activists, writers, nutritionists, thought leaders and policy influencers.

To date 13 podcasts have been recorded with more scheduled to be released throughout the whole year to keep the movement alive and fresh in people’s minds leading up to the next regenuary 2023.  Some of the highlights are John Cherry founder of Groundswell Agriculture Festival. Tim Mead – CEO of Yeo Valley, Eleven.   Helen Browning – Chief Executive of the Soil Association/Farmer. Allan Savory of the 8 Million TED talk fame. 

Traceability and provenance

Provenance is very important to us. We make a video of every supplier farm showing how they contribute to the battle against climate change and restore natural habitats while using exemplary animal welfare standards. While our ideals may sound idealistic, our videos show that what we do is grounded and very real. 

Traceability and transparency are of the utmost importance to our customers.  This is translated across our online presence, and we have introduced QR codes that enable customers to track to the farm from which meats were sourced. 

Ethical Butcher.  2020 - 2022

Since our launch we have created quite a stir. Maybe that’s because people’s ethical stance most likely defines who they are at a profound level.  Top of people’s concerns are the environment and animal welfare.  We should not be surprised that a brand that has the audacity to call itself ‘the ethical butcher’ would cause massive interest.

Crowd funding.

2021 was a great year, with several innovations, including a successful £1.4m crowdfunding raise. We made investment available from £10, so anyone who shared our mission could invest. We really spread the love, with 242 investers. You need three teams on your side in business: suppliers, customers and investors. Combined, they gave us a significant vote of confidence in our mission to prove you can thrive as a super Ethical business.

The well-balanced range.

We live in contrary times. While vegetarianism is of great social interest, people are also becoming more aware of the benefits of eating meat. Especially post-covid, the health benefits of fat are understood, as are the high nutrient levels of offal. With these changes in mind, we have introduced our 'well balanced' range, a collection of our most affordable cuts offering the highest nutrition levels with absolutely no compromise on ethics and impact. This range is for everyday eating, feeding large families and meeting the nutritional demands of athletes without breaking the bank.

The Well-Balanced Range was founded with three complementary goals in mind:

The balanced carcass. As an exclusively whole carcass meat producer, we generate a large inventory of cuts, some in much greater volumes than others which can lead to unbalanced stock. Given the time, cost, labour and resources put into producing meats the last thing we want to see is meat not reaching the plate. Incorporating these cheaper cuts into our Well Balanced Range, helps with the environmental imperative of using everything that has been produced . 

The Balanced Pocket. Working with whole carcasses allows us to make certain cuts more affordable than others according to availability and demand. This democratises access to ethically reared, high-quality meat by making our meats more accessible and allowing people to balance their budgets. 

Nutritional balance. Many of the more abundant and/or less popular cuts are some of the most nutrient-dense. By putting them in our Well-Balanced Range, we ensure that as many people as possible can access the most nutritious cuts of meat rich in protein, fats, and those essential amino acids and vitamins.

Another overarching benefit of eating meat this way is that fewer carcasses will need to be produced as we eat our way through whole carcasses, rather than only select, popular cuts. We will then reduce the number of animals on the ground and the environmental impact of animal agriculture.

P.S. One product combines all these benefits. Our fortified beef, which is 20% by weight of the most nutrient-rich beef organs, heart and liver, is now our second best-selling product.  

New products lines.

Venison

Venison is perhaps the most ethical meat we can eat in Britain today. Reproductive biology and survival rates mean that populations naturally increase; culling is needed to maintain a population that sustains its parkland in a fully integrated climate-positive system. We introduced a new range of venison from Packington Estates.

SOY free pork

In 2021 we introduced the country’s first 100% Soy-free chicken and other producers have followed our lead. In line with our mission to support young farming talent we partnered with the farmer’s daughter who has produced soy-free pork for us. After 18 months of trial and error, Redwoods Farm now offer a mix of rare breed pigs reared on a diet of woodland forage, pasture and homemade soy-free feed and taste unlike any supermarket pork.

Mutton

We are not just introducing new product lines, we are keen to introduce new ways of making the most out of what nature provides. Cull ewe, more commonly known as mutton, are retired breeding ewes that will no longer lamb for various reasons. From this we have introduced new product lines.  

Wild Hare. The first certified regenerative beef in supermarkets.

The Ethical Butcher has partnered with The Wild Hare to produce the UK's first certified grass-fed regenerative beef lasagne.  The first to reach the supermarket shelf. We are particularly delighted to make Regenerative Beef affordable.  These lasagne's are produced with the Ethical Butchers Pasture for Life certified regenerative beef. Cattle are raised in a way that is far more than sustainable but regenerative. The beef needs only sunlight and water + a great recipe + deep-ecology + the highest Ethical standards + the science behind carbon capture..  

Wild Hare are as committed to environment sustainability as we are. They use locally sourced ingredients, without emulsifiers, preservatives or any other chemicals and Ocado is on a mission to become the UK’s most sustainable grocer.  

From waste reduction to no-waste

One of the obvious methods of reducing impact is reducing waste, especially where otherwise waste products can be upcycled. 

To that end we are supplying Spring Broth with our waste bones from butchery to be pressure cooked into their incredible rich and delicious bone broths using both chicken and beef bones. https://www.springbroth.com/

Another waste reduction initiative we developed solved two problems in one. As we worked with farmer Mark Chapple to produce soy-free chicken for us we helped provide an alternative food source from the Brazillian derived soy that the vast majority of UK based poultry is fed. We had connected with regenerative rapeseed oil producer Farrington Oils and realised that the waste product of seed meal or ‘cake’ from this process could filfil this role and it has been very successful, a waste product is being upcycled into chicken for human consumption. https://www.farrington-oils.co.uk/

Supporting the next generation.

We are delighted to partner with Waltham Forest College, to provide our first Butcher apprenticeship. Butchery is the Cinderella craft, the skills and creativity involved are barely understood by the general public but a two year apprenticeship is essential to learn how to get the best cuts to meet customer expectations, limit waste and treat meat with the respect it deserves. In keeping with our ethical ethos we top-up the apprentice payrate to living wage level.

We are also pleased to support young people getting into work by joining the Government’s Kickstarter scheme.  We have taken on a ‘digital media wizard’ who we hope will build a future role as part of our team or will advance their career with a bag-full of skills learnt from us. Again, we have topped up the pay to living wage levels. 

From Start-up to SME

From a start-up in 2020 we have transitioned to SME.  This has involved all of the organisational and structural changes to be expected. We are regulation fetishist and believe that, at their best, regulations make the world safer for everyone, install thresholds for good practice, protect the public and enable government bodies to acquit their social and environmental responsibilities.  We support groups such as the ‘Better Business Act’ who are aiming to change UK laws to The Better Business Act will transform the way we do business, so that every single company in the UK, whether big or small, takes ownership of its social and environmental impact.

This year has been a busy one for us making sure our organisational structures, company policies and procedures meet and oftentimes exceeds all Govt regulations and industry best practices. 

Our team

Our team is critical to the success of our business and the achievement of our mission. We take our responsibility to them seriously. We love the impact diversity has on the team's creativity and welcome the variety of experiences they bring to our company. As such, we have a strict non-discrimination policy and we welcome applications from all suitably qualitied persons regardless of their race, class, sex, gender identification, sexual orientation, national origin, native language, religion, age, disability or any other characteristic protected by law.

We pay at least the London Living Wage.

Equality and Diversity

Butchery is an overwhelming white and male industry and farming is overwhelming white with a slightly better gender balance. 

Our PAYE team is diverse: 30% female, 50% from non-white British background, 15% neurodiverse.  

Our executive team, management and senior consultancy posts are 100% male, 33% are from minority ethnic background, 30% of the team are neurodiverse.

Equal Opportunities means striving across everything you do to eliminate bad practice, counter intrenched biases and heap even out wider social discrepancies in opportunity.  There is no-magic button, we attend to everything we can in our employment and hiring policies but where there are improvements we can make and will strive to make them.

Getting to know our team.

So that you can get to know the people behind the Ethical Butcher in each edition of our impact report we will present a short profile of one of our team-members 

Our Driver, Eric Danson Asare  

Earlier this year, our driver Eric set up a football tournament for 300 youths in Ghana. This started on a shoestring, funded by just him and a couple of friends, but such was the success next November they plan to bring a team from the tournament to play in the Gothia cup in Gothenburg - the youth equivalent of the world cup!

Football runs through Eric’s blood; he played football in Italy for 20 years, 4 as a professional. ‘Playing football in Italy easy, everything you need is there, he says, but when he looked back at his roots in Ghana, he found it is really difficult. ‘There’s no infrastructure and its impossible if you don’t have money and the right person to push you forward'. 

In August with support from football agencies in England, Italy and Denmark, they arranged a football tournament. After launching on social media and plugging on radio slots, word got around, and 300 children traveled from all over the country to the capital. Eric and friends paid for the players travel, accommodation and sustenance. The kit was sponsored by a new Ghanian start-up Glabamas, who produce pure organic shea butter. Eric is also excited that the Ghanaian second division team ‘Starmakers’ will take any budding stars under their wing and slot them into their academy system

Eric has called on his extensive contact list of fellow coaches and world-class former players who are taking an interest. Next year, contacts from the UK, Denmark, and Italy will be making the trip to Ghana. He holds a UEFA coaching Licence, and Oh, just space to mention, he speaks 6 languages! So we can expect no communication problems when his prodigies are picked up. 

For him, this tournament is not just about being spotted and heading for the big time. Football is unquestionably a beautiful game, but more than that, you learn about yourself, the importance of teamwork, how to become brothers (and now maybe sisters) and how to look out for others. You get stability and learn maturity.  He also says you can’t make it in football and not look back on your past and reckon with where you come from. Eric hopes that when a budding young star makes it, the effects will be felt across his extended family, friends and the whole community. He tells his youngsters, 'being humble helps a lot in football. Just look at the Liverpool player Sadio Mané who gave $694,000 to build a hospital in Senegal".

One of his protégées is a 14-year-old boy, unfortunately, orphaned. UEFA’s good practice rules mean you can’t just pluck a child out of a country and land him in Europe; extensive support and child safety rules come into play. Eric is currently navigating his way through this maze for this next Mané. 

He says football gives purpose to a young man’s life and builds the social fabric. ‘We are trying to make a small change in society for those who don’t have anyone to help them, and we want to use our experience to be that help’.

Awards

Our unique concept, brand and powerful digital marketing lead to the award of the 

British Farming Awards Digital Innovator of the Year.  We must immodestly say, this is a sterling achievement for a butcher.

Marie Claire Sustainability Awards. Highly commended

Butcher Shop of the Year Award 2020. Finalist On-line butcher business of the year. 

Butcher Shop of the Year Award. Winner Innovation of the year

Grocer Gold Award 2022. Finalist Specialist online retailer. 

Great British foods. 2020 Reader-voted top five online retailer.

Guild of Fine Foods, Great Taste Award – 3 Awards. Soy-free chicken. Iron age pork. Royal Persian chicken Kebab

London on the Inside  (London’s biggest lifestyle publication) the only butcher selected in London’s top 50 hero’s. Our founders Farshad and Glen have been recognised amongst the 50 London pioneers, change-makers who are championing sustainability.

Bcorp

The Ethical Butcher has applied to become a Bcorp (^[i], a global community of benefit corporations.  Bcorp started in America but is now global with 4,320 members, including many companies aligned with our values.

Companies awarded B Corp status have committed to using their businesses to work toward a more inclusive and sustainable economy. They strive to reduce inequality; lower poverty levels; and create a healthier environment, stronger communities, and purposeful jobs.

Bcorp membership is a prize to be treasured. It is rapidly becoming recognised by an increasingly environmentally aware and socially conscious market. It is also a valuable B2B award; it signifies a reputable and reliable partner. It already informs our decision-making when reviewing potential suppliers and partners, and we hope this is two-way.

Certification involves assessing our operations across the company. As you might imagine, as our supply chain is superlative; our packaging recyclable, our mission ethical, the health well-being and safety of our workers is properly regarded and our conveyance is net-zero, we already meet the vast majority of Bcorp criteria.  We have introduced a few things such as diversity training and energy monitoring, 

We are delighted that the vast majority of our shareholders supported a change in the company’s articles of association from a model ‘of fiduciary responsibly to enhance shareholder value’ to one of mission-aligned governance.  Crucially, in protecting our interests, Bcorp membership constitutes a comprehensive third-party standard against which our ‘mission alignment’ can be verified