The grain is one of the key starting links in the country's food chain, used to make cooking oil, tofu products and in feed for the burgeoning pig industry.

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Shenzhen Jinxinnong Feed, a Shenzhen-listed pig feed processor, says the company may invest in pig farming, too.

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The hormone has also been found in pig feed used by 355 Dutch farms, and in feed shipped back to Belgium and to Germany, they said.

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That was back in the 1970s, when the cheesemakers' discarded whey was used as fertilizer and pig feed.

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That was back in the 1970s, when cheesemakers discarded whey as fertilizer and pig feed--two of its loftier uses.

FORBES: Making Whey

They sold their quail for meat and hired technicians to develop pig food whose quality matched that of Thai agri-giant Charoen Pokphand, which then dominated the feed business in most of China, including Sichuan.

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