Copper bottomed!

Enterprise and the will to solve a problem, as well as do some good, has proved just the job in a part of the West Country, writes Philip Reynolds

- Philip Reynolds

Sometimes a confluence of circumstances can bring about unexpected change. The Covid pandemic, a healthy deer population, and the increasingly thorny issue of the use of lead ammunition conjoined to bring about a cultural shift in how game meat, in particular venison, was sourced in a small corner of Devon.

Andy Gray and his family have farmed at Copplestone, near Crediton, since 1991. His M. C. Kelly butchering business supplies meat to caterers and retailers in that part of the West Country. It was his friendship with Tim Woodward, the chief executive of the Country Food Trust, a food poverty charity, that proved the catalyst for change.

Confab

At the onset of the pandemic Andy Gray, Tim Woodward and Tim Maddams, the charity’s consultant chef, knocked their heads together to see what they could “‘do continue providing food for those in need”. The various pandemic restrictions meant that pheasant, the usual source of game meat for the trust’s meals, was in somewhat short supply due to the absence of shooting. Professional deer stalking continued and something needed to be done with the meat from the flourishing deer population. However, giving away meat with lead in it is legally problematic for the charity. There was a copper-bottomed solution.