Today on the show, my conversation with Butcher Matt Kemp, a week after he figuratively cut the ribbon at the Okanagan Butcher Hub, a new meat cutting facility located in Spallumcheen, just a hair north of Vernon.

Built by the Smallscale Meat Producers Association with support from multiple levels of government, it’s hoped that this butcher hub will help address a capacity issue that has dogged the region for years.

Matt joined me to talk about the year-long problem of insufficient slaughter and meat-cutting services in the Thompson-Okanagan, and really, around much of BC, and how this insufficiency has had knock-on effects on small-scale meat production. We’ve lost a lot of production, says Matt, and he hopes that butcher hubs like the one he’s now managing can slowly start to bring this production back online.