DES MOINES, Iowa — Interest in buying locally produced food has helped butchers' business as consumers who want to know more about the steaks or chops they eat crowd counters at shops nationwide.
"I could say that in the past five years, my business has doubled," said John Brooks Jr., the meat-cutter at Des Moines' B&B Grocery, Meat and Deli, an 88-year-old family owned store.
More people care that all the beef he butchers is locally grown in central Iowa, Brooks said, and other butchers said the same. The executive director of the Elizabethtown, Pa.-based American Association of Meat Processors, said he doesn't have numbers on how much members' business has grown, but most are doing well.
"They seem to, at the retail level, be doing rather well," Jay Wenther said.
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