It’s always amazed me that a lot of people don’t even know what whey protein is and only use it because brands say it’s good for you! Imagine if professional athletes had this attitude with any supplement? “Oh, coach says it’s going to help”, then they fail a drugs test and it’s them that’s banned and not the coach….

People love, and rightfully so, that they know that their eggs are free-range and where their meat is reared. However, oddly the same does not apply in the sports supplement market.

Whey protein is from milk and therefore sourced from dairy farms. It’s 100% natural and not a concoction made in a science lab by Walter White!

So if it’s from a dairy farm, surely you should at least know where the dairy farm is, what condition the cows are kept in – do they have free range to pasture year round or are they kept inside all year and only given feed?

A recent initiative called ‘Pasture Promise’ has campaigned to put a stamp of approval on dairy farms that have cows on pasture (grass) for at least 6 months of the year, effectively labelling these ‘free-range’. This suggests people would happily pay more for ‘free-range’ milk (and by extension, whey protein powder) if they had the choice between free-range vs non-free range.

At whey’d, it’s at the very top of our list that our whey is sourced from sustainable and ethically produced dairy farms. I spent nearly 6 months trying to find this holy grail of dairy when founding whey’d.

Coming from the West Country, I grew up around dairy farmers (and spent countless hours in my car waiting for them to cross the road! They’re definitely a laid back type!) My quest for the greatest source took me to my local dairy farms and cheese producers to see if they produced whey protein – they didn’t but they knew who did! Cue the Irish dairy farms!

Influenced by the Gulf Stream, Ireland’s mild temperate climate, plentiful rainfall and rich, deep soils means they have the longest grass growing season in the Northern Hemisphere. This means our happy cows are roaming on GMO-free grass for nearly 300 days a year! This creates whey that is richer in BCAA’s, lower in fat and has 5x more CLA (the nutrient that helps boost metabolism) than grain-fed cows.

Our Promise

Our promise to our customers is that our whey is of the highest quality, you know exactly where it’s sourced and what quality of life the cows have (read this blog on our visit to one of our farmers). We will only ever offer the highest quality of whey as this means that your diet is only ever supplemented with the healthiest nutrients.

At an even more granular level, we want to introduce one of our dairy farmers, Adrian. Adrian runs a dairy farm that has been in his family for generations. He is one of over 1,300 suppliers, all located within a 40-mile radius of our whey production site, producing high quality sustainably produced milk.

Sustainability Statement

Our farmers are members of the Origin Green sustainability programme, a unique initiative that unites government, the private sector and food producers. Origin Green protects and builds on Irelands natural assets.

Ireland already has the lowest carbon footprint for milk in EU 27, but our farmers are going further. Ireland is the only country in the world routinely auditing and carbon footprinting each dairy farm every 18 months, through a cycle of measurement, feedback and continuous improvement. We work closely with our farmer suppliers, through our network of milk advisors and farm sustainability officers.

Independently verified, Origin Green enables Ireland’s farmers to set and achieve measurable sustainability targets – reducing environmental impact, serving local communities more effectively and protecting the extraordinary rich natural resources that our country enjoys.

To finish

When you buy from whey’d, you know where it’s from, that we promise to strive for a sustainable source and that we have close working relationships with our family run farms.

Ethical sustainability is at the core of everything we do here at whey’d.

whey’d in a nutshell:

•  Sourced from family run Irish dairy farms
• Grass-fed, GMO-free cows– outside on pasture for up-to 300 days a year (free-range)
• Highly sustainable & constantly striving to improve
• Lowest carbon footprint of any milk in the EU
• We provide a glass of milk to a child in poverty for every sachet sold