Based on cheese production figures from the US Department of Agriculture, more than 100 billion pounds of liquid whey was produced in the United States in 2020. For most large-scale cheesemakers, this isn’t a problem, says Lisbeth Goddik, a food science professor at Oregon State University, with much of it converted into products like protein powders and animal feed. "The challenge is that the smaller cheesemakers can't afford to build these whey processing centers," she tells CNN Business.