We’re going to start feeding our pigs grain with roasted soy in it. For the last 3 summers we’ve been supplementing our pastured pigs with soy-free grains. There’s some research that indicates soy increases phyto-estrogens, which can mess-up the animal and even human hormones.
So why are we going to start feeding it to our animals? Well, there’s another line of thought that it’s not the soy itself that causes phyto-estrogens, but the way the soy is processed and grown. Another reason is that soy-free costs more per ton of feed and the pigs are just not growing as quickly on the soy-free grain, which is a financial hit for us. And the last reason is that only a small portion of our customer base is requesting soy-free pork.
We want to continue to research and observe soy vs. soy-free and we’re still going to raise one litter of soy-free pigs a year for those that want their pork to be soy free. If you are one of these persons, please let me konw so I can plan effectively for next year.
If you, or someone you know, has soy allergies and wants to experiment with our meat, let us know. Of course, this would have to be someone with mild allergies; we don’t want too serious of a reaction! We would like someone who knows they have sensitivities to soy to compare our pork grown with soy-free feed to our pork grown with feed with roasted soy, and observe if they have the same reactions as they would to pork raised with conventional soy-feed.
If you want soy-free pork, make sure you request that specifically when ordering your half or whole hogs. The last of the soy-free hogs are ready to butcher now, so if you want a soy-free hog yet this year, please order now. This also means our CSA customers will continue to receive soy-free pork through the end of October. As always, the feed we give to our animals is non-GMO, and grown without chemicals.
We’re interested to hear your thoughts and feedback on soy vs. soy-free. What has been your experience, and what research have you read?