High prices have lead many farmers across the country to look for cheaper feed sources. Now NPR reports that a Seattle butcher stumbled on an alternative that's doubled as a very successful marketing ploy.
William von Schneidau is feeding weed to his pigs. Now everyone's out to get some of his bacon.
If you're picturing a bunch of teenage pigs sitting around the pigsty eating pot brownies, you've got it all wrong. The growing medical marijuana industry is creating an excess byproduct of leaves, stems and root material. It turns out the surplus green makes for passable pig fodder. It also creates a lot of curious customers.
Nobody has a clue how much THC ends up in the bacon, but it's likely very low. Still, Schneidau's pot pig dinner event that featured one of the porcine stoners sold out fast. And subsequent media coverage has generated a lot of interest in a second event.
The hunt for cheap or free feed sources is a growing trend. Spent malted grain from the beer brewing process has become another popular alternative, and the same goes for vegetables used in distilling spirits.
Suddenly it doesn't sound so bad to be a pig.
