On July 24, 2025, Mission Barns received USDA and FDA approval for its cultivated, lab-made, meat products. The San Francisco-based company is now selling its lab-cultivated pork sausage, bacon and pepperoni in the Bay Area, offering an alternative option to traditional meat consumption for vegetarians and vegans seeking different food options.

Mission Barns has been researching lab-cultivated meat since 2018. Its current formula combines pork fat with plant proteins to produce a more sustainable version of typical land meat.

Animal agriculture is noted as a leading cause of climate change, accounting for 14% to 18% of greenhouse gas emissions and 32% of methane emissions globally, and Mission Barns plans to address this issue with the creation of their products. 

To create lab-cultivated meat, scientists at Mission Barns take samples from pigs during tissue biopsies and place them in bioreactors — systems that provide controlled environments for cells to grow. After the removal of the samples, pigs whose cells are used for this process are raised like normal on a farm. 

In a Bear Witness poll asking Branham students if they identified as vegetarian or vegan, 5% of the 118 who answered said yes. Of these students who have taken meat out of their diet, the decision often came from concerns about treatment towards the animals that are harvested to be eaten and the environmental impact of animal agriculture. Sophomore Ollie Fernandez shared their personal journey towards becoming a vegetarian, which was rooted in this same concern.

“At first it was just a passing thought,” Fernandez said. “I was talking to my parents about how I never really cared for meat in the first place, and I started hearing more and more about how not eating meat can help the planet, and I’m really passionate about that sort of thing, so I became vegetarian, and then soon my older sibling followed after me.”

Fernandez also shared their interest in the creation of new dishes that could be prepared with lab-cultivated meat products instead of plant-based imitations.

“It would be interesting to find out how lab-grown meat could impact new recipes that could come up,” Fernandez said. “I know a lot of alternatives that are used right now. They just don’t have the same effect as real meat, and I don’t miss it, but sometimes I wonder what it could be like to have the same sort of taste without the guilt of eating real meat.”

In a review article published by Frontiers in Nutrition, an open-access scientific journal, lab-cultivated meat was credited to have a look, aroma and taste very similar to livestock meat. One experiment involved cooking lab-cultivated goldfish like a regular fish fillet. The way that it behaved while being cooked was described as reacting the same way harvested fish would. 

While the creation of Mission Barns lab-cultivated meat aims to address some climate issues caused by livestock farming, the process of creating it comes with its own ethical concerns. Senior Alex Solbeck shared her thoughts about how it may impact the planet.

“It has its fair share of pros and cons,” Solbeck said. “It would definitely reduce carbon emissions from beef production, but you also still need a lot of energy to produce lab-grown meat. Even though it will increase animal welfare, it’s grown from animal cells, grown in a controlled environment, and you still have to get those animal cells from live animals, so it’s not entirely humanitarian.”

Freshman Ilisha Kaushik also shared her worries about cultivated meat products entering the Bay Area, focusing more on how it could affect the human body than the environment.

“I do think that they sound quite harmful to our community,” Kaushik said. “It seems really unnatural to create something to eat in a lab. There’s already so many processed foods out there, and now we’re just expanding it even further. I don’t really like the idea of that. You don’t really know what’s in those lab-made meats and how it can be harmful to you.”

Although it’s still relatively unclear what lab-cultivated meats can do for us, some students show optimism for the promise the new innovation has. Lab-cultivated meat products have the potential to have a positive impact on the Bay area community, according to Fernandez.

“There’s a lot of bad effects of harvesting meat,” Fernandez said. “A lot of the industries that harvest meat use non-ethical practices or they’re just generally bad for the environment. I think having a good alternative to that might help with a lot of problems that are going on right now.”

Illustration by Annette Aguilar/Bear Witness