Better For Butchery Begins Operations With Princeton, Kentucky, Plant

What started as a purely localized meat processing effort, Porter Road Meats has morphed into co-packer Better For Butchery, which last week revealed it acquired a 27,000-sq.-ft. USDA-inspected processing facility in Princeton, Ky.

With the purchase and the renaming of the company, owner/CEO Chris Roach commits Better For Butchery to providing butchery and shipping services to small ranchers in western Kentucky. The company specializes in beef and Heritage pork raised there. The Princeton facility handles processing, packaging, cold storage and order fulfillment.

PHOTO AT TOP: At the opening of Better For Butchery's Princeton plant were (from left) Travis Burton, USDA Director of Rural Development for Kentucky; Austin Wetherington, Office of Congressman Comer; Kota Young, Caldwell County Judge/Executive; and James Piesker, Better for Butchery Master Butcher.

The purchase was funded by a $2.5 million USDA Rural Development loan. USDA Rural Development Director Travis Burton said it’s an example of the current administration’s directive to expand local meat processing across the country. “Against a backdrop of meat industry consolidation and plant closures, what they are doing is really going to be the model for the rest of the country,” he said.

All BFB butchers have been trained on the art of seam butchery to cut things by hand. The fulfillment team ships direct-to-consumer packages, most sold through the Porter Road website (porterroad.com).