You invent the Edinburgh Foodball, of course! Or that is what a group of scientists from Edinburgh did, anyway. The Edinburgh Foodball is a foraging device that was designed to randomly deliver food rewards in small amounts after it has been pushed around by the pig. It is a ball that has nubs on the outside that give it texture and help in keeping it relatively clean. The pigs must work to get the food contained in the Foodball. This is an example of operant conditioning: a pig must learn to operate the Foodball in order to receive a reward.

It may seem odd, but pigs actually have a sort of agenda. About eighty percent of the time, pigs are lying down (the technical term is recumbent); ten percent of the time is devoted to feeding; and the rest of the time is spent rooting (digging with the snout), walking -- generally just freewheeling. However, when breeding pigs are concerned, overeating must be avoided so the pigs do not become fat and infertile. Thus, you would not be able to hurl a heaping helping of food at a sow and assume she would eat as if she were following orders from Jenny Craig. If all of the food is given at once, the pig will eat it all and still have a feeding motivation, but there will be no food left. This is one way in which stereotypic behaviors develop, which is, to say the least, not good.

Sows that are kept under the strict restraints maintained by a breeding facility show signs of poor welfare, but these behaviors may be remedied if the sows are allowed to forage, which is where the Foodball comes in. The scientists performed an analysis of the Foodball and its effects on the behavior of gilts. (Gilts are young female pigs that have not yet produced a litter of pigs.)

Why is allowing a gilt to forage important to someone in the pig industry? It is just like any other business: maximize the condition and desirability of your product. In this case, the product is the pigs that the gilts bear. If the gilts suffer, then the piglets suffer, and the person running the gilt business suffers.

"So," you may be asking, "what did those scientists conclude after their research?" In a nutshell, when given the opportunity, sows will express their feeding motivation as foraging behavior. However, the sows' interest must be held, which is to say, in effect, that there must be food reinforcement. When sows were presented with Foodballs that were filled with gravel and did not dispense anything -- a dirty trick! -- the sows quickly lost interest. But, besides being a sort of toy for the pigs that hands out food, Foodballs cause increased activity in the pigs, because they have to walk around in order to operate them. As much as some like to deny it, increased physical activity is good, especially for these pigs. Also, Foodballs may be good to use in areas where straw bedding -- a material at which pigs' rooting may be directed -- is not made available.

With that said, watch out for the Edinburgh Foodball, coming to a department store near you! Okay, well, maybe not, but it may eventually be put into widespread use, and you can say that you heard about it here first.

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