Miyoko “didn’t get it,” but Tyson backs North Carolina cultured meat start-up

And Direct Action Everywhere “liberates” 95 chickens.  Will capitalists or activists do most to free farmed animals?

SONOMA, California––“I didn’t get it.  The company that bears my name went to someone else with a higher bid,”  a visibly disappointed Miyoko Schinner,  68,  told supporters on November 10,  2025.

Miyoko’s Creamery,  the company Schinner founded in 2014,  from which she was ousted in 2023,  had just been sold at an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors auction,  the equivalent of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding.

$102,343 was not enough

Schinner had raised $102,343 on short notice to put in a bid,  but the Miyoko’s Creamery assets,  including the brand name,  trademarks,  and formulas for plant-based butter and cheeses,  put up for sale on October 6,  2025,  were clearly worth a lot more to a variety of potential bidders,  from established vegan entrepreneurs to conventional butter and cheese producers seeking either to diversify their portfolios or eliminate a competitor.

Who did win possession of what remains of Miyoko’s Creamery,  after Schinner’s successors ran the company into quasi-bankruptcy,  closed the Miyoko’s Creamery factory in Petaluma,  California,  and jobbed all production out to third party contractors?

Did Satish Karandikar enter winning bid?

The odds-on vegan favorite was animal welfare donor and investor Satish Karandikar,  62,  heading the Ahimsa Foundation of Nimot,  Colorado,  and Ahimsa Companies,  of New York City.

Karandikar has reportedly already acquired the plant-based food companies Wicked Kitchen,  Simulate (Nuggs),  and Blackbird Foods.

According to attorney and Plant-Based Food Association founder Michele Simon in a recent blog post,  “Karandikar is also behind a more recent deal with Beyond Meat for an eye-popping $100 million.”

However,  wrote Elaine Watson for AgFunder,  “The winning bidder has not yet issued a public statement, while Resolution Financial Advisors,  which handled the Assignment for Benefit of Creditors process,  has not responded to a request for comment.”

Direct Action Everywhere claims mass chicken rescue

While the Miyoko’s Creamery auction brought global attention to Sonoma County,  California from one direction,  a Direct Action Everywhere chapter in Paris,  France on November 11,  2025 somewhat upstaged the auction with a mass alleged chicken rescue undertaken to draw notice to the October 29,  2025 conviction of Direct Action Everywhere member Zoe Rosenberg in Santa Rosa,  California,  the Sonoma County seat.

Rosenberg,  23,  was found guilty on three misdemeanor counts of trespassing and tampering with a vehicle,  and one felony count of conspiracy,  after removing four chickens from Petaluma Poultry,  a Perdue Farms slaughterhouse,  located––like the former Miyoko’s Creamery building––about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

Rosenberg is due to be sentenced on December 3,  2025.  As a repeat offender with multiple convictions in connection with chicken advocacy ,  Rosenberg could be ordered to serve more than five years in prison.

(See Chicken activist Zoe Rosenberg convicted; Ridglan beagle farm to close.)

“Ninety-five hens”

“Ninety-five hens were just rescued in response to Zoe Rosenberg’s recent felony conviction,”  Direct Action Everywhere announced.

“Direct Action Everywhere Paris just rescued these 95 individuals from a factory egg farm in France,”  Direct Action Everywhere said via social media.

“They will now live out their lives in safety, freedom, and care. This comes shortly after Farm Transparency Project,”  an Australian  farmed animal advocacy organization,  “liberated 130 hens from a factory egg farm in Australia.”

(See Chicken activist Zoe Rosenberg convicted; Ridglan beagle farm to close.)

“They may have deeper pockets”

Schinner remained focused on her philosophy that the way to the world’s hearts is through their stomachs.

“While they may have deeper pockets,”  Schinner said of the as yet unidentified high bidders  for Miyoko’s Creamery,  “I may have deeper connections with the community.  At the end of the day, I’d rather take that to my grave than a pile of money.  So thanks to all of you for your heartfelt support,”  Schinner told her backers.

“I also have to give a shout out to my friends,  family,  and small angel investors,”  Schinner added,  “who believed in me in 2014 and put their money in an idea to get it off the ground.  They all lost their money.  This is the sad story — those who invest at the beginning,  generally ordinary people,  are the ones who risk the most because the idea of the company is literally only an idea at that time.  Professional investors wait until there’s a proven track record to reduce risk.

Rancho Compasión

“I’ll take a moment for mourning,”  Schinner said.  “But then I have to get back to work — Rancho Compasión,”  her farmed animal sanctuary,  has a “tenth anniversary gala this Saturday,”  Schinner mentioned,  “and I am busy preparing and cooking for it.

“And then,”  Schinner continued,  “I have to start promoting the international tours I’ve arranged for next year –– Japan,  Tanzania,  and India –– all vegan,  all insider-track trips focused on traditional culture and food systems.

“I’m also fortunate to still be teaching a plant-centric food systems class at U.C. Berkeley, “  Schinner said.

“And finally,”  Schinner concluded,  “I’ve started a conversation with others about what kind of new food company we could create that reflects the ethics and values that support equity,  justice,  community,  and animal welfare.  As for product ideas,  I have a few in mind.”

“48 hours wasn’t enough”

Schinner added in a LinkedIn post that if the insolvent Miyoko’s Creamery had  “approached me at the outset and offered to sell it back to me,  this might have been a different story. I nstead, I found out about the auction through word of mouth,  through the public sphere.”

Then,  Schinner said,  “48 hours wasn’t enough to solidify deals, figure out the structure of a new entity,  and make sure that the funds would not be a simple spin on a roulette wheel.”

Believer Meats opens cell-cultured chicken factory

While Schinner in one direction and Direct Action Everywhere in another tried to buck corporate clout on behalf of plant-based diet and farmed animals,  the multi-national cell-cultured meat producer Believer Meats enlisted major corporate investment to start producing cell-cultured chicken in North Carolina.

North Carolina might in many respects be considered enemy territory for alternatives to meat produced by animals.

According to the North Carolina Poultry Federation,  “Poultry is the #1 commodity produced in North Carolina,  contributing more than $39.7 billion to the state’s economy and creating nearly 150,000 jobs.”

Archer-Daniels-Midland & Tyson

But Believer Meats claims $123 million in venture capital attracted from sources including Archer-Daniels-Midland, an agricultural conglomerate formed in 1902,  ranked as the 35th largest corporation headquartered in the United States,  and Tyson Foods,  the world’s second largest chicken producer.

Other investors,  according to Believer Meats,  are Emerald Technology Ventures,  Bits x Bites,  the Cibus Fund,  and the 90-year-old Israeli insurance company Menora Mivtachim.

Reported Dan Flynn for Food Safety News on November 6, 2025,  “Along with a USDA blessing for the company’s product label, Believer Meats now has all the approvals it needs to produce and sell its cell-cultured product in the U.S.A.,   after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in July signed off on Believer Meats with a ‘no questions’ letter.

“A major milestone”

“It is the fifth cultivated meat startup to get a ‘no questions’ letter from the FDA,”  Flynn wrote,  “and the first non-U.S. company to be green-lit.

“Believer Meats,”  Flynn recounted,  “was founded in 2018 by Yaakov Nahmias,  a biomedical engineering professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  His Israeli startup is the world’s largest cultivated meat factory,  to which USDA Food Safety & Inspection Service personnel are being assigned.”

Completion of the Believer Meats factory in Wilson County,  North Carolina,  was called by chief executive Gustavo Burger in a LinkedIn post,  “A major milestone that authorizes us to begin commercial production and sales of our cultivated chicken products in the U.S. and export to international markets.”

Observed Flynn,  “While several states are banning cell-cultured meat products,  North Carolina is not among them.  NCBiotech,  the state’s economic development center for biotechnology,  is giving Believer Meats a warm embrace.”

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