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Meat boosts Ashland store's sales Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Mike Shilts stocks the meat shelves at the Ashland Community Food Store. The grocery, formerly a co-op long known for its veggie-friendly fare, added meat to its offerings after customers overwhelmingly requested it in a survey. Not all of the store's customers are happy with the change. Meat now makes up 5 percent of store sales. But anger over former co-op's policy shift lingers By DANI DODGE Some of its vegetarian and vegan customers would say that the Ashland Community Food Store has sacrificed a sacred cow to meat eaters - it now sells hamburgerized Bessie for $3.49 a pound. But the store's carnivorous shoppers are eating it up. Less than a month after introducing beef, pork and fish to the tofu and tabbouleh temple, meat makes up 5 percent of sales. Some customers are delighted to be able to pick up free-range chicken with their organic bean sprouts. Some are dismayed to see meat stacked in the corner that used to stock children's toys. Others are disgusted. "They should be a leader in practices that will sustain the planet, but you can't sell chicken or beef and maintain you are being environmentally conscious," said Ragan Cavanaugh, 73, an "almost vegan, except for a little cheese." "They are falling down a slippery slope. Pretty soon it will be just the same as Safeway." The Ashland Community Food Store started as a buyer's club in 1971 with 275 people. A year later, the group expanded into a storefront called the Ashland Food Co-op. At the time, members manned the registers and most of the food was sold out of barrels. Meat wasn't even a consideration. Over the last 10 years, some hormone-free organic frozen meats have sneaked into the freezers, but not so that most people would notice. There are now 8,000 members, and four weeks ago the store put in two meat display cases. In neat rows are fresh fish, shipped in three times a week, and antibiotic-free beef from dairy farmers in Grants Pass and Riddle. There's hormone-free chicken, which has been on the store's plate for some time. There's even rabbit. And it's all within a cowpie's throw of a dozen types of rice cakes - and 18 different varieties of tofu. The store's policy, available above the meat counter, reads in part: "ACFS believes animals can and should be raised, transported and processed using procedures that are clean, safe, and free from cruelty, abuse and neglect." The Ashland Community Food Store isn't alone in abandoning the animal-free philosophy: Calls to fourteen natural food stores across the state netted only two - in Portland and in Eugene - that are still meat-free. Many started carrying meat in the last few years. Annie Hoy, Ashland Community Food Store's public relations coordinator, said a 1998 survey of 350 customers showed that 75 percent of them wanted meat. "We've had a change in consumer attitudes," she said. "We have a lot of former vegetarians adding fish and chicken and even clean beef into their diets." When Cantwell's, a gourmet grocery store in Ashland, closed recently, store managers saw their chance to jump on the meat bandwagon and hired Cantwell's former meat manager, Terry Boaz, 59. Boaz says he used to "hunk it and chunk it" for conventional grocers, but now enjoys a close relationship with farmers and fishermen. He actually has documentation on the treatment of the animals he butchers. It's the personal relationship that reassures many store customers. "It's not an issue of eating meat or not - but putting in your body meat or vegetables that were treated with reverence," said Rama, 30-something, as he sat cross-legged on the store's lawn eating lunch. "It's more about respect." As she put free-range chicken breasts in her shopping basket, Vonna Skidmore, 36, said it's important to her to feed her children humanely raised animals. And she doesn't care that it costs more. "If you've seen pictures of chickens in hen houses, it's depressing," she said. "And processing is unsanitary and they use antibiotics. I don't want that in my kids." A suggestion board at the front of the store seems to bear out the wisdom of carrying meat in the store: The notes saying "Yahoo!" outnumber those demanding "Get the meat out!" But many believe that the former co-op has given up a prime principle in the quest for consumer convenience. "I don't expect them to have compassion for animals to my extent, but they do claim to have environmental concerns and on an environmental basis animal products are disastrous, " said Ron Elterman, 50, a member of the Southern Oregon Animal Rights Society. "This is a move in the wrong direction." But, he said, his group that organizes the annual Meatout - in which proponents urge the public to refrain from eating meat for at least one day - will continue to meet monthly in back of the store. "It's a free, convenient space," Elterman said. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.