Livestock Pigging Out on Junk Food

The biofuel craze has doubled the price of corn in just a few years, forcing farmers from Pennsylvania to California find alternatives to feed their livestock. What they're coming up with is cookies, candy bars, cheese curls, breakfast cereal and french fries, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The cattle and hog industries—which historically consumed 60% of the country's corn crop—are now buying up truckloads of rejected products from food companies. Farmers report that animals  thrive on sweets and snack food, though watching pigs chow down on chocolate chips can be disorienting. One farmer observes, "every once in a while, you can spot a couple of cattle fighting over a whole potato." (More cattle stories.)