| | | | | | | | | | | Axios What's Next | | By Alex Fitzpatrick, Jennifer A. Kingson and Joann Muller · Jul 26, 2022 | | Meatless bacon, anyone? For today's story, Alex visited an upstate New York mycelium farm growing what could be the food of the future. Today's Smart Brevity count: 1,124 words ... 4 minutes. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Turning mushrooms into bacon |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Alternative meat startup MyForest Foods yesterday unveiled what it calls the world's largest aerial mycelium farm, a high-tech facility meant to crank up production of its mushroom-based imitation bacon, one of many products making it easier for meat lovers to give up the real thing, Alex Fitzpatrick reports. Why it matters: Animal farming is a major greenhouse gas emitter, and wide-scale adoption of alternative meats could help curb climate change — assuming they're produced cleanly. The details: MyForest Foods' new facility, called the Swersey Silos, is located in Green Island, N.Y., a short drive up the Hudson River from Albany. - The Swersey Silos are expected to annually produce nearly three million pounds of mycelium — the root-like fungal structure from which mushrooms grow — for making the company's MyBacon pork alternative. A company rep said that would be enough for about one million pounds of MyBacon per year.
- Axios got to tour the 78,000 square foot vertical farming facility, where mycelium will be grown on racks reaching 16 feet tall. With seven rooms, it will have 1.75 acres of growing space — about the same as a smallish conventional mushroom farm. Each batch is grown for 12 days and harvested in a single day.
- MyBacon samples offered at yesterday's event were delicious, if not exactly like the real deal. (For those interested in cooking some at home, the chef recommended medium-to-high temperatures, adding that "you can't flip often enough.")
What they're saying: "We basically build these cyborg buildings that replicate the environment you find in a forest," MyForest Foods co-founder and CEO Eben Bayer tells Axios. "And we sort of trick the mushroom to form these, basically, sheets of mushroom flesh. So rather than forming a mushroom, we get a 50-foot-long, four-foot-wide, two inches thick slab of mushroom meat." - "They've got this umami flavor, which sort of mimics flesh. And all we do is slice it off, slice it into bacon strips, salt it, smoke it, put a little coconut fat on it."
The big picture: MyForest Foods was spun off from Ecovative, a company Bayer co-founded to explore business opportunities in mycelium-based clothing, packaging, and more. - Ecovative was one of the earliest commercial mycelium ventures, a category that has since grown to include a number of other startups, such as the San Francisco-based MycoWorks, Colorado-based Meati, and Israel's Mush Foods.
Yes, but: Despite lots of marketing and industry partnerships with big brands like McDonald's and Starbucks, consumer interest in alt-meats may be waning. What's next: MyBacon, which was first available at an Albany grocery co-op, is now coming to two Massachusetts stores as the company scales up production and the broader alt-meat wars rage on. Share this story. |     | | | | | | 2. Got EV questions? GM has answers |  | | | GM's EV Live studio is staffed by specialists who can explaining battery technology, charging, and more. Photo courtesy GM | | | | General Motors yesterday launched an ambitious effort to educate the public about electric vehicles, including a platform for curious shoppers to pepper EV specialists with live questions over video chat, Joann Muller reports. Why it matters: Automakers are spending billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles, but the public remains wary. And dealer salespeople often aren't much help in answering consumers' myriad EV questions. Details: GM's new website, EV Live, is meant to supplement its 4,500-dealer network by allowing customers to schedule one-on-one tutorials about the EV ownership experience. - Trained EV specialists equipped with video cameras can guide people through various dynamic displays in GM's EV Live studio.
- Customers can learn about battery technology and get familiar with different types of charging equipment.
- Banking giant Chase launched a similar site this week, too.
Reality check: There's plenty of GM marketing embedded in the experience, and by signing up for a live video tour, you're giving permission for a dealer to follow up. The bottom line: Step 1 in the promised EV revolution? Education. Share this story. | | | | | | | | 3. What Facebook's redesign really means |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Mark last week as the end of the social networking era, which began with the rise of Friendster in 2003, shaped two decades of internet growth, and now closes with Facebook's rollout of a sweeping TikTok-like redesign, Axios' Scott Rosenberg writes. The big picture: Under the social network model, keeping up with your friends' posts served as the hub for everything you might aim to do online. But now Facebook wants to shape your online life around the algorithmically sorted preferences of millions of strangers. Between the lines: As Facebook grew and joined the exclusive club of Big Tech giants alongside Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, so did the problems. - Facebook's friend counts and "like" buttons turned human relations into a depersonalized metrics competition.
- Keeping up with the volume of posts became a chore — which is why, from 2009 on, Facebook's newsfeed defaulted to an algorithmic, rather than chronological, sort.
- That drove many users — particularly political organizations — to try to game Facebook's program.
- Critics charged that over time, this dynamic became a driver for extremism, misinformation, hate speech, and harassment.
Be smart: The TikTok-style "discovery engine" model shares many of the same problems. What's next: Messaging will continue to grow as the central channel for private, one-on-one, and small group communications. Read the rest. | | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | A better way to communicate with stakeholders | | |  | | | | A difficult truth: You could have the smartest people, strongest strategy, endless capital — but your team is set up to fail without clear communication. That's why we built Axios HQ, a powerful tool that untangles uncertainty and streamlines communications. See how we use it at Axios | | | | | | 4. Uber's helping users get a handle on things |  | | | Image courtesy Uber | | | | Uber says customers are enthusiastic about the ride-hailing company's newest option — Comfort Electric — which allows them to summon a ride in a Tesla or other premium electric car, Joann reports. There's only one problem: Some riders can't figure out how to operate the door handle of a Tesla, which lies flush against the car's body. - As the new service rolls out, Uber has found it needs to follow up each Tesla ride confirmation with some instructions: "To open the door, push wide part of handle with thumb. Then grab and pull handle to open."
It's an unexpected wrinkle in Uber's effort to get more drivers and riders to go electric. - The Comfort Electric option debuted in May in San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles.
- Riders tap a button to request a ride in a premium EV such as a Tesla, Polestar, or Ford Mustang Mach-E.
Driving the news: Axios is first to report that starting today, Uber is expanding Comfort Electric to seven additional cities: Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland, and Seattle. Read the rest. | | | | | | | | 5. Are you ready to stream some football? |  | | | Image courtesy NFL | | | | The National Football League's new streaming service will make more NFL games widely accessible on the go, Axios' Sara Fischer reports. Why it matters: The service, called NFL+, will help the league reach a wider audience of younger fans who don't have traditional TV plans. By the numbers: NFL+ costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 annually. Yes, but: Live, local, and primetime regular and post-season games will only be available on phones and tablets, not TVs. The big picture: The NFL has been aggressively trying to bring more of its games to streaming without cannibalizing its lucrative TV contracts. Read the rest. | | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | A better way to communicate with stakeholders | | | | | | | | A difficult truth: You could have the smartest people, strongest strategy, endless capital — but your team is set up to fail without clear communication. That's why we built Axios HQ, a powerful tool that untangles uncertainty and streamlines communications. See how we use it at Axios | | | | A hearty thanks to What's Next copy editor Patricia Guadalupe. Was this email forwarded to you? Get your daily dose of What's Next magic by signing up here for our free newsletter. |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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