🍅 Tomato prices have restaurants seeing red

🚸 Officials Want To Make It Safer To Get to School

• City officials say they want to work with Madison school district officials and the Wisconsin Bike Fed to develop a Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan to improve safety, comfort, and accessibility for Madison children walking or biking to school.
• Between 2017 and 2023, a total of 208 crashes were reported involving school-aged children in Madison, with two children dying. In February, 17-year-old Sasha Rosen died when he was struck by a car while walking across Park Street.
• The city is hosting a virtual public meeting on May 21 to discuss the goals of the plan and gather public input. [City of Madison, News 3]

⚛️ From Hot Dogs To Nuclear Fusion

• Madison could be home to a new nuclear fusion research site which would bring hundreds of millions of investment dollars to the state, and the site of the former Oscar Mayer plant is being considered as a possible location.
• Kieran Furlong, co-founder and CEO of Realta Fusion in Madison, said Wisconsin is among the “final two states” for the facility, with a decision expected by the end of the summer. The new facility, known as “The Realta Forge,” would build on research the company now sponsors in the UW-Madison Physics Department.
• City officials have discussed potential tax increment financing for the project to be located at the Oscar Mayer site, but nothing has been decided. [Cap Times]

🍅 You Knew Gas Prices Were Rising. But Tomatoes?

• The city of Madison is spending an additional $170,000 per month to keep its vehicle fleet operating because of high gas prices, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said.
• Gas prices are up 47% and diesel is up 67% compared to this time last year, Rhodes-Conway said. The city is on track to spend an additional $1.5 million on gas this year, which could rise to $2 million if the price of gasoline tops $5 per gallon.
• While drivers may be feeling the pain at the pump, local restaurants are also feeling the pain in the kitchen. Fraboni's Italian Specialities & Delicatessen in Monona said they’re dealing with a 40% increase in tomato prices due to tariffs and rising transportation costs. [WKOW]

People want to know where their produce comes from, their milk, even their clothing. So why not their meat? As concerns rise about factory farming and the treatment of animals, a new breed of local butcher shops have flourished using the “farm-to-table” model. They partner directly with small-scale Wisconsin farmers so they can tell their customers exactly where that ribeye steak comes from.

On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin talks to Meat People Butcher co-owner Pip Freeman about the shop’s commitment to sourcing their meat from Wisconsin farms that treat their animals humanely and provide responsible land stewardship. (Warning: Today’s episode will make you hungry.)

Here are some butcher shops around Madison where you can stock up for your Memorial Day cookout and beyond.

Meat People Butcher

This shop on Monona Drive sells pasture-raised beef, pork, lamb and chicken, as well as a curated grocery section and wine, beer and spirits. Also make sure to follow them on Instagram or sign up for their newsletter to learn about their Thursday sandwich specials – they’re worth planning lunch around.

The Conscious Carnivore

Started as a retail outlet for the organic food producer Black Earth Meats, this whole animal butcher shop on University Avenue in Shorewood Hills sells a dizzying array of meats, including handmade sausages every Thursday.

Bucky’s Varsity Meats

As the name suggests, this butcher shop is located on the UW-Madison campus, inside the Meat Science & Animal Biologics Discovery Building. The show sources its products from 2,000 acres of farmland that the university owns for agriculture research in Arlington, as well as other local producers.

Underground Meats

While Underground Butcher on Williamson Street closed in 2019, its sausage-making business lives on at a facility on East Wilson Street. Its handmade sausages, including soppressata and black garlic salami, are made from humanely-raised high-quality pork.