From Gutter to Gold

Chapter 3 traces the emergence of the whey supplement market, attending to how protein creates surpluses of value and waste as it moves through different bodies and social processes. During the mid-twentieth century, the rapid industrialization of dairy agriculture and its ecological fallout played leading roles in the commodification of whey effluent in Canada and the United States. In exploring the transmogrification of whey from a noxious by-product of dairy overproduction into a nutritional commodity deemed essential to many diets and fitness regimens, this chapter uncovers a multiplicitous substance with no simple line of ascendance. Instead, what emerges is a messy ancestry of techno-innovations, capitalist imperatives, dairy cow exploitation, environmental campaigning, and a biopolitical shift toward the optimization of bodily health. Protein powder thereby represents a key site for assessing the epistemological and political implications of protein’s agentic capacities.