BUTCHER Darren Wiseman is getting to the meat of a serious problem in York and North and East Yorkshire.

He is on a crusade to bring back the traditional art of butchery, slowly being lost with the closure of small butcher shops in the face of competition from supermarkets.

That is why he was carrying out butchery demonstrations throughout the day as part of the celebrations for the opening of a new £1.5 million Centre of Vocational Excellence in Food Chain Technology, at Askham Bryan College, York.

Darren used his 22 years experience to dazzle more than 120 agricultural bosses and policymakers.

These included Sir Donald Curry, chairman of the Government's Sustainable Farming and Food Implement-ation Group who formally opened the Centre, and Professor Gareth Rees, principal of the college.

Updated: 10:45 Friday, October 14, 2005