In Praise of Bacon Made From Mushroom Roots
Let’s get this out of the way: I love bacon. Porky, fatty, sizzling bacon, fresh from the skillet. Crisped to perfection, with tomatoes, crisp iceberg lettuce, griddled sourdough slathered with mayo. I like my bacon wrapped around shrimp like a delicious boa constrictor, or as garnish on Bloody Marys. The more locally sourced and chemical free the better.
But, I also love the planet. It’s a groovy place to live and, despite Elon Musk’s hysteria-laced ministrations, the only place we got. And at this point, questioning the reality of climate change is largely an activity indulged in by cackling wing nuts in dark cellars. We know it’s here: Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 341 weather and climate disasters reaching or exceeding $1 billion a piece, according to the National Centers for Environment Information. (The grand total? More than $2.475 trillion.) Last year alone, there were 18 disaster events linked to climate change, including a drought, a flood, 11 severe storms, 3 tropical cyclones, 1 wildfire and 1 winter storm.
Animal Agriculture + Climate Change
Agriculture contributes to climate change: Between 21% and 37% of annual carbon emissions are due to agricultural activities, including anthropogenic methane emissions, agricultural operations like tractor fuel, inputs like the making and application of fertilizers, the transportation of goods to market and more, according to a comprehensive study from a University of Oxford scholar published in Frontiers Sustainable Food System.
Animal agriculture alone generates 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions, more than all of the gas generated by all of the planes, trains, buses and other forms of transportation— combined.
By simply cutting back on meat consumption, I could reduce my carbon footprint. One recent study published in Nature posited that if every person in the U.S. slashed their meat consumption by 25%, the nation’s annual greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 1%.
I’m not alone in my desire to make room on my plate for more veggies. About 40% of Generation Z, 43% of Millennials, 37% of Generation X and 28% of baby boomers are “very interested” in trying plant-based diets, due to concerns over our food supply and climate change, according to a survey conducted by GlobeScan of 30,000 consumers in 31 markets across the world.
Bacon Alternatives
And yet. THE BACON.
I have been equal parts intrigued, hopeful and dubious observing the rocket-like ascent of MyBacon, producer of “bacon” made from … wait for it … a root-like structure of fungus consisting of a mass of branching hyphae, right here in the Capital Region.
“I grew up on a working farm in Vermont,” says Eben Bayer, MyForest Foods’ co-founder. “We primarily focused on producing maple syrup from our 3,500 trees, but we also raised and slaughtered chickens, pigs and cows.”
From an early age, Bayer was fascinated by the natural world around him, including agriculture—and was eager to leverage the manner in which living organisms sustain and adapt themselves to the environment they find themselves in. He enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) as a student of mechanical engineering, and met future MyForest collaborator Gavin McIntyre.
As students at RPI, they teamed up on a “eco-home” project, and discovered the incredible power of mycelium, or the root-like structure of mushrooms.
“Our professor, Burt Swersey, really pushed us to get creative,” Bayer recalls. “He inspired us to think of ways to solve multiple problems at once.”
They grew mycelium spores—the first batch was cultivated under Bayer’s dorm room bed—blended them with other organic materials, and eventually produced organic, fire-resistant, biodegradable insulation dubbed Greensulate.
Their invention was patented, and their partnership was born. When they graduated in 2007, both with dual degrees in mechanical engineering and product design in innovation, they co-founded Ecovative Design, to use the magic of mushrooms to create eco-friendly shroom packaging (in lieu of Styrofoam) for companies like Dell and IKEA.
“Our first office was in the basement of RPI, in a business incubator they had,” Bayer recalls. But the business grew like a, well, mushroom. They branched out into fashion, beauty and, eventually, food. In 2010, they opened their first major plant right outside of Troy.
“We picked Green Island in part because of the location, which is close to our homes and convenient for distribution,” Bayer says. “But we also appreciate that 50% of our power comes from the hydroelectric dam Henry Ford helped construct in 1921.”
In 2020, Bayer and McIntyre officially launched MyForest Foods as a food-focused offshoot of Ecovative, raising $40 million in funding from the likes of Stonyfield Organic founder Gary Hirshberg, Robert Downey Jr. (yep, that Robert Downey Jr.) and Applegate Farms founder Stephen McDonnell. The product: mycelium bacon, marketed as MyBacon.
“Stephen did so much for animals with Applegate, pushing for organic farming, antibiotic-free meat and ethical animal husbandry,” Bayer says. “He told me he wanted to get involved in MyForest to do even more for the pigs. Bacon is the food meat-eaters don’t want to let go of, and pigs are the smartest animals and live in the worst ways. Focusing on bacon as our first product was an easy pick.”
Growing Like a Mushroom
That same year, the team scaled up production on Green Island, creating what is now the world’s largest vertical mycelium farm.
If you’re picturing a giant lab-like space involving row upon row of mysterious mushroom pods sealed off behind metal doors, you’re not far off . The exact details of MyBacon’s highly calibrated and technical production process is a trade secret but can be boiled down to its essence thusly: They source wild, gourmet strains of mushrooms, bring them to the vertical farm and “feed” them wood chips so they can grow into fully formed mycelium.
“It took us a long time to perfect our system,” Bayer admits. “We used wood chips from a furniture factory in Western New York to grow our mycelium. It’s essentially a low-cost, plentiful waste product with a lower carbon footprint than alternatives like sugar, which is shipped from halfway across the world.”
In less than two weeks, wood chips + spores + mist + a nap in the vertical metal farm pod, the mycelium is ready to be harvested, and sliced. Just as a pork belly is sliced, the “mush bellies” are sliced, Bayer says.
Those slices are seasoned, brined and brushed in coconut oil, then packaged and ready to hit the skillet. Bayer, deeply familiar with confirmed pork-bacon-lovers’ reluctance to embrace a substitute, suggested a live sampling of the wares.
At MyBacon’s kitchen, experiential and engagement coordinator Alanna Weiss, fried us up a few slices. As it turns out, the texture of mycelium is similar to that of pork—and the same savory, smoky, salty, umami kick that keeps me coming back for more is present as well. MyBacon is a bit chewier than the pork version, and I can’t picture it “working” as a cocktail garnish, but those are, let’s face it, pretty minor quibbles.
Like the porcine variant, I’d eat MyBacon on sandwiches, with pancakes, incorporated into pasta bakes. In a house; with a mouse. Here and there. Anywhere!
MyBacon converts abound. MyForest started rolling it out with a slow lope, focusing on just one retail client: Honest Weight Food Co-Op in Albany. It was an instant hit, selling out every week since landing in the store 100-plus weeks ago. In July of 2022, MyForest was beginning to trot, and found equally enthusiastic fans at Berkshire Food Co-op and Cornucopia Natural Wellness Market.
“Now we’re in 50 stores in New York and Western Massachusetts,” Bayer says. “We’re building out our farm space, and by ramping up production, we will be producing 1 million pounds of MyBacon annually, and have the capacity to produce 3 million. But we’re really intent on growing rationally.”
At this point, MyBacon is only officially produced on Green Island, but the team is in the process of launching a second farm in Canada, with Whitecrest Mushrooms.
“We have been working together on this, and growing test batches for months,” Bayer says, explaining that Whitecrest will be able to grow 3 million pounds of mycelium on less than one acre of land, which is then transformed into 1 million pounds of MyBacon.
“Eventually, we’d like to partner with other farmers, and create other production and co-packing hubs,” Bayer says. “But we want to do it sustainably in every sense. We want to work with partners who are committed to green energy, and who hate waste as much as we do.”
I’m not ready to give up meat bacon completely, but I’m definitely willing to supplement it with MyBacon. And I will be watching—this time, with unadorned hope—for MyForest Food’s next batch of mycelium-centric edibles. Word on the street, it involves jerky.
