You are invited to attend a roundtable discussion on an issue that has posed a critical challenge to our region's farms, processing businesses, and local food buyers: a shortage in skilled and modern trained butchers. 

Roundtable Discussion

Skilled & Modern Trained Butchers: Impacts and Solutions to a Critical Workforce Shortage

Monday, September 16

10 am - Noon

Cutco Theater on the Olean campus of Jamestown Community College 

Are you a livestock or poultry producer, a processing business, a wholesale or institutional buyer impacted by a shortage of butchers?

Please join this open discussion with your peers and reps from workforce development, academic institutions, Cornell Cooperative Extension, ag and food system orgs, and economic development. Your input will help guide strategies to develop a talent pool of skilled tradespeople critical to a profitable local farm and food economy. 

Workforce shortages across skilled trades continue to pose challenges to local employers and often result in negative impacts to the regional economies. Often overlooked are labor shortages for jobs and career pathways in farm and agriculture businesses, many of which require specifically skilled tradespeople and can offer strong earning potential. As Southern Tier West and our partners have learned, a shortage of skilled butchers is negatively impacting the profitability of local farms, sustainability of local processing businesses, and disrupting the local food supply from meeting the continued strong demand for local food products. 

We've studied the historical and trending circumstances that have contributed to this workforce deficit, interviewed diverse stakeholders, asked volumes of questions, and have brainstormed some creative solutions. Now it's time to broaden the discussion, expand understanding, and advance a collective response to develop a skilled talent pool. Please join us for this roundtable discussion with the goal to better frame our understanding of the impacts faced by food system businesses and generate solutions that support profitable farms, profitable businesses, and profitable agriculture careers. 

Please let us know if you have any questions or if we can help register you and your guests to attend. All are welcome!

Kimberly LaMendola

klamendola@southerntierwest.org

716-945-5301 x2211

or

Amy Barkley

amb544@cornell.edu 

716-640-0844

You can also RSVP and register HERE

The flexible agenda:

• 10 am - 11 am: Discussion and reflective responses with a participant panel toward framing an understanding of this workforce shortage and its subsequent impacts throughout the food system and solutions toward alleviating the situation. 
• 11 am - 11:30 am: Pathway to Butcher Apprenticeship Program: Amy Hadfield, Apprenticeship Training Field Supervisor, NYS Dept. of Labor. Amy will present an overview of steps involved to establish a new butcher apprenticeship program 
• 11:30 am - Noon: open discussion and question / responses

Noon - all are welcome to stay for light refreshments and networking