For thousands of years pigs have been man’s perfect partner in consuming the waste that humans produce and converting it straight into calories i.e. pork. Today, supermarkets talk about composting food waste or turning it into electricity but by far the most efficient thing to do with food waste is to feed it directly to pigs.
Instead, we have a crazy system where pigs are being fed food that humans could otherwise eat, and much of this feed is soy, grown in the Amazonian basin where rainforest is being cut down at an alarming rate. 97 percent of global soybean meal is used for animal feed and Europe now imports 40 million tonnes of soymeal a year. The amount of land needed to produce soy for the European market since the ban on meat and bone meal is roughly equal to the area of deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest since that date!
The governments of other countries such as Japan, South Korea, China and many states in the USA recognise that the best way of turning food waste into a valuable resource is to feed it to livestock. Instead of banning the practice, the Japanese government support pig farmers who want to use food waste as feed. The resulting pork is sold at a premium as eco-pork on the same supermarket shelves from which the waste originated. In the UK, thousands of British pig farmers have gone out of business because of increases in the price of wheat, maize and soy – the principal ingredients of pig and chicken food – on the global market place where the farmers are competing with people who wish to buy these grains for their own consumption. If every country returned to the practice of recycling food waste for livestock feed it would increase global food security for the future.
The Pig Idea campaign was started in 2013 by food waste expert, award-winning author and environmental campaigner Tristram Stuart. Together with his 'Feeding the 5000' team and in partnership with top chef Thomasina Miers, on 21st November 2013, they gathered thousands of Londoners in Trafalgar Square for the Pig Idea Feast.
Seven of London's best restaurants served over 5,000 portions of free food, using pork that had been reared by the campaign at Stepney City Farm on a diet of food that would otherwise have been wasted. 'Hambassadors' from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to Sara Cox joined Thomasina to wow the audience with inspiring pork-based cooking demos - from trotters to tongue. The aim was to raise awareness of the issues surrounding the feeding of crops to pigs, and gather support for The Pig Idea campaign which aims to lift the EU ban on feeding catering waste to pigs and establish a robust legal framework for its safe processing and use. The campaign also promotes the use of already legally permissible food waste as pig feed – for example, bread, dairy, fruit and vegetables that are unfit for human consumption. In achieving these objectives, the following long-term goals will become a reality: liberate food supplies to help feed people; protect landscapes rich in biodiversity, such as the precious Amazon rainforest; reduce the costs of pig feed for British and EU farmers; and create jobs and revenue in the new eco-feed industry.
As well as this method of feeding pigs being safe and environmentally friendly, it produces a delicious end product. We know that we all need to reduce meat consumption drastically, and that the meat we do eat should come from animals that have been bred and reared under the highest welfare standards; it should also come from animals that have been fed in the most sustainable way, whether that's food waste-fed pork or pasture-fed beef.
Let them eat waste!
The Pig Idea is part of Feedback, the organisation Tristram Stuart founded in 2014 to expose the hidden causes of food waste throughout global supply chains and catalyze action to tackle the problem. Our other projects include Feeding the 5000, Gleaning Network, and Stop Dumping. Further info: www.feedbackglobal.org