Pot-Eating Pigs Fatten Up Before Hitting The Market

Experimenting with marijuana is usually reserved to the average high school or college stoner, but pot-eating pigs in Washington state are putting that theory to the test. Susannah Gross, a farmer in Olympia, Washington, has found a way to utilize marijuana waste by feeding the popular plant’s leftovers to pigs before they are butchered and sold on the market.

Gross owns a five-acre farm north of Seattle, and she’s been feeding a specific group of her pigs marijuana waste that has proved to give them a bigger appetite. Over the last four months, Gross has fed four of her pigs the leftover stems, roots, and leaves of the plant.

The experiment has produced some highly probable results, as the the four pigs tested with pot have grown 20-to-30 pounds heavier than the rest of the litter before being sent to slaughter in March.

In November, just before Gross began testing the plant with her pigs, voters in the state of Washington passed a measure to make recreational use of marijuana legal, though the federal government still considers the plant to be an illegal narcotic.

The pot-eating pigs are just the start for Gross and her medical marijuana grower, Matt McAlman, according to Reuters. McAlman hopes the experiments will expand to greater uses for the powerful plant that has grown popularity over the past few years.

“We can have pot chickens, pot pigs, grass-fed beef,” McAlman told Reuters.

The European Food Safety Authority was studying the uses of marijuana on animals a few years ago, as they reported in 2011 that “no studies concerning tolerance or effects of graded levels of THC in food-producing animals have been found in literature.”

Though any harm or negative reactions to the pot-feeding hasn’t been noted, some have criticized the idea of using marijuana waste in a pig’s diet. The local butcher and customers of Gross’ pot-eating pigs believe otherwise.

William von Schneidau, the owner of the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, received the pigs from Gross in March and it didn’t take long to sell out. When speaking to Reuters about the customers’ reviews, von Schneidau said “some say the meat seems to taste more savory.”

Do you believe the pot-eating pigs are just the beginning as medical marijuana farmers are popping up left and right, with nowhere to put the plant’s wastes?