Local Butcher Feeds RI's "Locavores"

A Johnston business has helped a farmer on Block Island bring his products to market more quickly and less expensively, allowing "locavores" — customers who seek to get their food locally — to buy and eat Rhode Island-raised beef, The Block Island Times reported.

In a story published June 23 on the Times website, reporter Judy Tierney wrote that Block Island farmer Joe Sprague had considered opening his own slaughterhouse until he found , located on Armento Street.

[Click the link to see the Johnston company's price list.]

With a federal inspector on site, Tierney explained, Rhode Island Beef and Veal allowed Sprague to keep the entire process — from raising the cattle to selling cuts of beef — within Rhode Island's borders.

Tierney also wrote that the Johnston company ships the butchered beef to a plant in Westerly where it's frozen and shipped to The Block Island Depot, a store that sells locally-produced food on the island.