About Us

Our Good Meat® values look like this:

Care for land, animals, and people. Transparency from start to finish. Nourishment and community.

We’re on a mission to catalyze marketplace innovation, connection, and education across the meat supply chain in order to increase the economic viability and ecological impact of livestock farmers who invest in healthy land, animals, and people.

We envision a future where meat is produced ethically and responsibly, by an industry that invests in healthy animals and landscapes, values people all across the food supply chain, and nourishes diverse, well-informed consumers.

How We Work & Who We Work With

We achieve our mission and vision through education, tool building, knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer learning, and marketplace experimentation and collaboration. We are run by and for farmers and ranchers, butchers and chefs, and anyone interested in or dedicated to finding, buying, cooking and eating meat that aligns with our Good Meat® values. This means we work with a vast network of people who engage with and/or support a constellation of meat production practices from grassfed or pastured practices to sustainable, and/or regenerative meat production, to name a few. While we work with everyone along the supply chain, our programming is focused on increasing and improving marketplace interactions between consumers, producers, and food professionals (butchers/chefs) who align with our Good Meat® values. Our programming builds communities of practice among and between each of those communities.

More about how we work and who we work with:

Farmers and Ranchers Marketing Innovation Network

Our FARMIN program serves Good Meat® farmers and ranchers who sell direct to consumers and/or through wholesale or retail channels. Our FARMIN program:

Offers technical assistance on marketing, branding, and business development
Creates helpful resource libraries
Develops and coordinates marketing experimentation projects like collaborative trade promotions
Develops open-source marketing toolkits for direct-to-consumer Good Meat® producers
Develops and offering online and in-person marketing education series and workshops
Builds a Good Meat® marketing community of practice through peer-to-peer learning and networking opportunities
Works with Good Meat farmers and ranchers to educate consumers about finding, buying, and cooking Good Meat through our Good Meat Breakdown® program to save Good Meat® farmers and ranchers time and energy
Offers tools, resources, and advice to farmers and ranchers who want to offer hands-on Good Meat® education (whole animal butchery & utilization workshops) to their customers through our Good Meat® Collective initiative.

Butchers and Chefs Opportunity Network

Our BACON program supports Good Meat® butchers, chefs, and other food professionals who aim to source, process, and sell local meat. Our BACON program:

Develops a Good Meat® community of practice around sourcing, processing, preparing, and selling meat
Offers peer-to-peer learning and networking opportunities
Facilitates Good Meat® knowledge exchange around sourcing, processing, preparing, and selling local meat
Builds and shares resource libraries
Maintains a whole animal butcher shop database for consumers
Develops a New Butchers Training program (in progress)
Brings female-identifying and gender nonconforming butchers and chefs into conversation with female-identifying and gender nonconforming farmers and ranchers through our Women's Good Meat® Network project, which offers mutual support, prioritizes learning across difference, centers the diverse lived experiences of its members, and models these values for the entire Good Meat industry.
Offers tools, resources, and advice to butchers, chefs, and other food professionals who want to offer hands-on Good Meat® education (whole animal butchery & utilization workshops) to interested customers through our Good Meat® Collective initiative.

Good Meat Breakdown®

Our GMB program helps consumers to learn about responsible meat production and consumption and define their own Good Meat® values. The GMB also offers them practical tools and resources for finding buying and cooking meat that aligns with those values. Our GMB program:

Offers consumers opportunities for online and in-person education around meat production and consumption practices that align with our Good Meat® values.
Offers consumers tools and resources for find local Good Meat® farmers, ranchers, and brands that align with their Good Meat® values
Builds resource libraries that help consumers find, buy, and cook meat that aligns with our Good Meat® values.
Shares the stories of Good Meat® farmers, ranchers, butchers, chefs, advocates, and eaters through our Snapshots initiative.

Our Fee-Based Services

We prioritize authentic, long-term partnerships and projects with organizations, governmental agencies, and businesses that share our mission to increase the economic viability and ecological impact of farmers who invest in healthy land, animals, and people. Here are some of the fee-based services that we have offered to existing and interested collaborators and partners, from the Washington State Department of Agriculture to the Southwest Grassfed Livestock Association, Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission, and Quivira Coalition:

Development of consumer-facing marketing toolkits for open-source use by direct-to-consumer Good Meat® farmers and ranchers
Technical assistance webinars focused on marketing, branding, and sales education for Good Meat® farmers and ranchers
Individualized office hours with our network of marketing, branding, and business experts
Custom marketing workshops, webinars, and educational series for regional groups of direct-to-consumer Good Meat® farmers and ranchers
Custom whole animal butchery workshops to aid Good Meat® farmers, ranchers, butchers, chefs, and other food professionals in more successfully selling to consumers in their local markets

Learn more about our fee-based services.

Our History

The Good Meat Project (GMP) was founded in 2014, by a butcher, a chef, a farmer, and a consumer—Camas Davis, Sarah Wong, Sarah King, and Tanya Harding. They had come together many years before through the Portland Meat Collective, an LLC that Camas opened in 2009 in Portland, Oregon, with the aim of using experiential meat education to teach everyone along the meat supply chain where responsible meat comes from and how best to get it to their tables. Translation: The four founding members of the GMP met while butchering a pig! This shared experience helped shape the original mission of the organization, which was to open source the Meat Collective model across the country. Since then, the GMP has incubated over a dozen independently-owned Meat Collectives across the country, and has advised several dozen existing meat businesses, from farms and ranches to restaurants and butcher shops, whose owners wish to offer experiential, hands-on meat education to their customers.

The GMP’s mission, vision, and programs have expanded significantly since the organization's early days, but it still serves the same people who founded the GMP: butchers, chefs, farmers, and consumers. From the beginning, education, cross-pollination, and collaboration between and among these audiences have been our guiding North Stars, all in the name of building a Good Meat® movement.

Press Inquires

Interested in covering the work and impact of the Good Meat Project?

Email us at press@goodmeatproject.org

Our 2023 Impact Statement
Read Now