MyForest Foods Expands MyBacon Distribution to Massachusetts
MyForest Foods Co. has formed retail partnerships with Berkshire Food Co-op in Great Barrington, Mass., and Cornucopia Natural Wellness Market in Northampton, Mass. These retail partnerships are the result of scaling for MyForest Foods, a whole-cut mycelium food company. MyForest also held an opening ceremony for Swersey Silos, its vertical mycelium farm, the world’s largest farm of its kind.
Since 1981, Berkshire Food Co-op has upheld its mission to provide sustainable food products and nourish communities in an environmentally sensitive manner, making them a natural mission-aligned partner for MyForest Foods to introduce its flagship product, MyBacon, to consumers.
An hour east, Cornucopia Natural Wellness Market has offered the best in local and organic foods to Northampton since 1980. The company’s first retailer, Honest Weight Food Co-op of Albany, N.Y., has consistently sold out of MyBacon over the past 70 weeks.
MyForest Foods commemorated the opening of its new vertical AirMyceliumfarm — a true milestone to scale MyBacon distribution and drive accessibility. The farm, known as Swersey Silos, utilizes a patented AirMycelium technology developed by Ecovative, the mycelium technology company that spun out MyForest Foods in 2020. The Ecovative team was responsible for designing and constructing Swersey Silos to provide MyForest with the full benefit of the AirMycelium technology.
Swersey Silos has the capacity to produce nearly 3 million pounds of mycelium annually, offering an alternative to traditional pork bacon that drastically reduces the land, water and carbon footprint found in conventional factory farming practices. Swersey Silos is part of 120,000 square feet of new infrastructure, including a new production facility in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., which is slated to open this fall. Operating at full capacity, MyForest Foods is projected to serve MyBacon to more than one million consumers by the year 2024.
The farm is named after Burt Swersey, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who inspired MyForest Foods co-founder Eben Bayer to seek creative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Swersey Silos is dedicated to Burt’s legacy and MyForest Foods’ promise for a well-fed future.
“By forming strong partnerships, listening to our consumers, and focusing on sustained growth, MyForest Foods continues to embody Burt Swersey’s principles to make lasting, effectual change,” said Eben Bayer, Co-Founder and CEO of MyForest Foods. “Professor Swersey’s philosophy of ‘don’t do nonsense’ is at the core of our mission to do meaningful work — it’s why we’ve focused on creating a delicious, sustainable product to help alleviate the dual crisis of climate change and food scarcity.”
Earlier this year, MyForest Foods announced a partnership with Whitecrest Mushrooms Ltd., a Canadian gourmet mushroom farm, to develop nearly three million pounds of annual MyBacon mycelium production capacity on less than one acre of land. Through this successful partnership and the new farm infrastructure, MyForest Foods is poised to reach new consumers through additional natural products retailers and a northeastern food truck tour later this year.
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