Walking into Madison’s Conscious Carnivore butcher shop is an anomalous experience. In addition to shelves lined with local honeys and crackers, the imposing glass case in the middle is furnished with cuts of beef, pork and whole smoked chickens, all from local vendors.
But the most impressive thing behind this shop is its message: “respect for every animal, on four feet or two.”
The Conscious Carnivore is the epitome of what a butcher shop in 2015 should be. It boasts certified organic, grass-fed meats from local farms where all of the animals are healthy and humanely slaughtered.
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Dave Gathy, the head butcher at Conscious Carnivore, started off helping out at the butcher shop of his friend’s father in high school. He now runs the successful retail outlet of the first humane-certified meat processor in the area.
The shop was originally part of Black Earth Meats, which was a series of small farms with pasture-raised animals. These animals had no antibiotics or pesticides and were part of a humane slaughter operation.
“When [Bartlett Durand] opened this place two years ago, I was brought on to be the butcher here,” Gathy said. “I was already thinking about moving away from what was going on at other places because of this [shop’s] message.”
While more and more “conscious” butcher shops are slowly starting to pop up, Gathy said the concept hasn’t completely caught on because it is much more expensive to do.
But, according to Gathy, the less stress an animal goes through, the happier it is and the better the product, something people are willing to pay more for.
“Most slaughterhouses have a rail system with a timed machine to slaughter, so it’s basically not caring about the animal. It’s about getting them in and getting them out,” Gathy said. “They don’t care about the stress it puts on the animal.”
The Conscious Carnivore is also able to help the farms that go the extra mile — raising their animals healthily and humanely — by selling their products at fair prices.
But they don’t stop there: They also continue to educate and integrate the community into their animal-minded process. Conscious Carnivore has a library that people are encouraged to explore, and patrons can read on-site at Conscious Carnivore’s big, family-style table. In addition, Conscious Carnivore offers classes to the public on everything from butchering a whole lamb to a make your own bacon class.
“Bacon is the top class but the whole hog is also near the top,” Gathy said, smiling. “We do whole animal and people come in and grab the knife and just break it down.”
These classes offer a hands-on look at butchering, and also leave participants with 15-20 pounds of meat to take home. In all, Conscious Carnivore offers classes on whole lambs, whole hogs, bacon and chicken, along with turkeys around Thanksgiving and roasts around the holidays. You don’t have to be a master chef to take these classes, either.
“Some people just take the class, have a beer and leave with some good meat,” Gathy said.
The Conscious Carnivore has plans to expand their business and spread their admirable message in the future. A year from now, they hope to have two stores open and, after that, another processing plant to deal with more wholesale business.
Until then, they have plenty to keep the Madison community coming back for more.
