This is Somerset --wdnews@b-nm.co.uk
Legalising the use of pigswill has become headline news recently thanks to the efforts of environmental group The Pig Idea.
Currently it is illegal under EU law to feed catering and household food waste to pigs, but waste expert Tristian Stuart and restaurateur Thomasina Miers – founders of The Pig Idea – believe that this food should be fed to our nation's pigs.
However while such proposals have certainly proved fashionable, the debate is contentious, with the National Pig Association (NPA) strongly opposed to the group's proposals.
According to the Waste Reduction Award Programme (WRAP) it is estimated that the food and hospitality industry alone creates more than 900,000 tonnes of food waste every year at a cost of around £2,800 a tonne and when this is coupled with the 4.4 million tonnes of "avoidable" food waste being thrown away by home owners every year, it represents a significant problem.
While there is an obvious financial cost to this waste, it also proves an environmental problem, with the majority of waste being sent to ever expanding landfill sites throughout the UK.
The Pig Idea founders feel these issues could be alleviated by legalising pigswill and organising a system whereby discarded food is taken directly from producers – be they schools, food manufacturing plants or restaurants – and then converted by new, strictly regulated "centralised processing plants" into pig feed.
However, the National Pig Association is keen to point out that such steps may not be necessary as the nation's pig feed producers already "recycle" more than 1.23 million tonnes of "co-product" (the NPA preferring to use this term rather than food waste) for use in pig feed. This co-product is taken directly from the human food chain in the form of bread, cereals and starch extracts that have passed their sell-by dates but still possess a clear and documented provenance from the food and drinks industry.
Currently 43 per cent of all pig feed is made up of such components and the industry is already looking to expand this intake of co-product; hoping to utilise the 3 million tonnes of food that could be incorporated under already existing EU law.
Another of The Pig Ideas' main motivations for legalising pigswill is that they believe doing so would alleviate financial pressure on pig owners who currently have to dedicate 75 per cent of production costs to pig feed.
By reintroducing pigswill into porcine diets pig owners could be provided with a non-soya based feed, which The Pig Idea believes will relieve pig keepers from the crippling financial burden of feed prices.
Soya meal and feed wheat are currently two components that make up the majority of pig feed; two commodities that continue to rise in price due to growing worldwide livestock populations and limited global supply.
Thanks to increased feed costs, last year witnessed UK pig producers selling animals at a financial loss, with many forced to carry out stringent destocking programmes in a desperate attempt to reduce feed bills.
As a result, the national pig herd contracted by 20 per cent between 2002 and 2012, with cumulative industry losses since the start of 2011 still amounting to more than £140 million.
However, the NPA argues that the pig industry is already coming up with alternatives; utilising increasing amounts of peas, beans and rapemeal as a substitute form of protein, which has led to a halving in the amount of soya in feed over the last ten years.
Some also feel that although feed prices are high, pig keepers are at least assured of being provided with a standardised and safe product.
But there are concerns – it is generally agreed that the 2001 foot and mouth crisis was caused by a case of contaminated pigswill – which cost the public £3 billion. Reported by This is 12 minutes ago.
