{"id":10348,"date":"2014-08-11T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=10348"},"modified":"2014-06-17T15:01:50","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T19:01:50","slug":"whey-fed-pigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/","title":{"rendered":"Whey-Fed Pigs"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re willing to bet that the pigs of Parma, Italy, savor their meals more than most: They\u2019ve been consuming whey left over from Parmigiano Reggiano production for centuries (at least, those fed in the traditional manner have). The pigs\u2019 enhanced diet, in turn, delights humans: It\u2019s credited for giving Prosciutto di Parma its famously rich flavor.<\/p>\n

Historically, most pigs around the world were fed a variety of food waste, including whey. The advent of commercialized meat production pushed farms away from whey and toward mass-produced (and often soy-based) animal feed. Today, however, more small-scale and artisan farmers are returning to whey feeding. Proponents say the pigs are happier and healthier, and farmers reap multiple benefits.<\/p>\n

Ignacio Villa, co-owner and manager of Vermont Whey Fed Pigs, learned about the sustainable practice in his native Colombia. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to find ways of integrating various enterprises into one farm operation,\u201d Villa says. A few years ago, he became \u201chogmeister\u201d at the von Trapp Farmstead in Waitsfield, Vt., where he introduced the idea of feeding whey from the farm\u2019s cheese operations to its small pig herd (just four in 2010, but about 60 Gloucester Old Spots, Tamworth, and Berkshire today).<\/p>\n

Villa hopes to standardize the production of whey-fed pigs across the state through Vermont Whey Fed Pigs, which has partnered with other farms, including Spring Brook Farm in Reading. Villa credits whey with the von Trapp pigs\u2019 health: None have suffered internal parasites (a common problem). \u201cThe fact is, our pigs grow well on whey,\u201d he says. The meat is sold mainly to local Vermonters.<\/p>\n

Farmer Rachel Bell of Tide Mill Organic Farm in Edmunds, Maine, also believes in the practice, and says it keeps her crossbred Gloucester Old Spots and Large Black pigs healthy. She appreciates how using the liquid by-product as pig feed contributes to the cyclical nature of the farm\u2019s creamery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like thinking of my farm as a whole organism,\u201d Bell says. Her pigs, marketed as Ironwood Whey-Good Pork, are sold on the farm and through area buying clubs and markets.<\/p>\n

Besides whey\u2019s practical benefits, there are also culinary perks, as Prosciutto di Parma lovers well know. Whey-fed pigs produce meat known for being deliciously dark, moist, and nutty\u2014far less lean and dry than commercial pork.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Image courtesy of Jasper Hill Farm<\/a><\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":10349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[408],"class_list":["post-10348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm-animal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhey-Fed Pigs - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whey-Fed Pigs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-11T09:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julia Domenicucci\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julia Domenicucci\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/\",\"name\":\"Whey-Fed Pigs - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-11T09:00:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/edc1584f874de33286e18215663b2ddb\"},\"description\":\"These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":368,\"caption\":\"Whey-fed pigs at Jasper hill Farm\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Farm Animal\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/farm-animal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Whey-Fed Pigs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/edc1584f874de33286e18215663b2ddb\",\"name\":\"Julia Domenicucci\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b30bd983f28ed6a17e023e5a5d0c56c4\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Anon-Cheese-Watercolor-500x500-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Anon-Cheese-Watercolor-500x500-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Julia Domenicucci\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/julia-domenicucci\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Whey-Fed Pigs - culture: the word on cheese","description":"These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Whey-Fed Pigs","og_description":"These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_published_time":"2014-08-11T09:00:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Julia Domenicucci","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Julia Domenicucci","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/","name":"Whey-Fed Pigs - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-11T09:00:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/edc1584f874de33286e18215663b2ddb"},"description":"These whey-fed pigs prove that feeding cheesemaking by-product to swine is a sustainable practice with delicious outcomes","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Pigs.jpg","width":750,"height":368,"caption":"Whey-fed pigs at Jasper hill Farm"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/whey-fed-pigs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Farm Animal","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/farm-animal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Whey-Fed Pigs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/edc1584f874de33286e18215663b2ddb","name":"Julia Domenicucci","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b30bd983f28ed6a17e023e5a5d0c56c4","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Anon-Cheese-Watercolor-500x500-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Anon-Cheese-Watercolor-500x500-96x96.jpg","caption":"Julia Domenicucci"},"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/julia-domenicucci\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10348"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}