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Article posted: 2/2/2013 6:00 AM

After artisanal cheese, Vermont explores charcuterie

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Robin Morris, center, watches Frank Pace, left, and Florin Ungureanu, butcher a pig Tuesday in Waitsfield, Vt. Vermont officials are exploring a new round of value added agriculture, hoping their livestock industry might take advantage of the burgeoning world of charcuterie. "You can buy a pig for $3 a pound. You turn it into cuts and you'll get $4, $5, $6 a pound. Turn it into bacon and you're getting $8 maybe $9 a pound. Turn it into cured products, the world's your oyster," said Morris, founder of the Mad River Food Hub, an incubator for new food businesses that is adding rooms for producers to dry cure meats such as salamis, prosciuttos and sopressatas.

Associated Press

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Pete Colman makes sausage, in East Montpelier, Vt. Along with its craft beer, artisan cheese and a demand for locally produced foods, Vermont is hoping to expand production of specialty cured meats as it works to develop a meat industry in a state that has been primarily dominated by dairy cows.

Associated Press/December 2012

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Nearly 30 years ago, a handful of enterprising Vermonters realized they could do more with milk than just sell it. And with a little help from the state, they became pioneers in what quickly blossomed into the now behemoth artisanal cheese movement. Now Vermont officials are exploring a new round of value added agriculture. Because why just raise livestock when instead you could be tapping into the burgeoning world of charcuterie?