JUNE 6, 2013: A campaign has been launched to re-introduce the feeding of waste to pigs.
The campaign, which has been called The Pig Idea, began yesterday (Wednesday, June 5), part of world environment day. It hopes to encourage farmers about the benefits of feeding pigs surplus food and calls for a change in European law so farmers can return to feeding pigs waste in the long term. As part of the campaign eight pigs at Stepney City Farm will be reared on safe waste collected from around the London area. The pigs’ food will include spent brewers’ grains, whey and unsold vegetables and bread. Campaigners claim that as well as cutting down on the amount of food wasted and reducing feed costs, allowing farmers to feed pigs waste will free up food supplies for humans and reduce the need to grow virgin crops for feed. Tristram Stuart, an author and campaigner on food waste, said: “Humans have been recycling food waste by feeding it to pigs for thousands of years. “Reviving this tradition will help to protect forests that are being chopped down to grow the millions of tonnes of soya we import from South America every year to feed our livestock.” Europe currently imports 40m tonnes of soya grown on rainforests each year from Latin America to feed livestock. Philip Lymbery, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming said: “Recycling properly treated food waste through pigs kept in decent conditions is a common sense way of feeding both pigs and people.”
