Official blog for The
Pig Idea - The campaign putting food waste back on the menu for pigs in
Britain, Europe and around the world. Luckily where there's swill there's a
way!
Official blog for The Pig Idea - The campaign putting food waste back on
the menu for pigs in Britain, Europe and around the world. Luckily where
there's swill there's a way!
The National Pig
Association (NPA) has recently launched its Don’t Kill Me With Kindness campaign,
warning hobby pig-keepers of the illegality of feeding various types of food
waste to pigs.
A recent press release from the group
explained that "feeding kitchen and catering
waste carries a penalty of up to two years in jail because it risks
introducing costly and damaging disease epidemics to Britain…"
The primary goal of
the The Pig Idea campaign is to bring about a change in European law to allow
food waste including catering waste to be diverted for use as pig and chicken
feed; and to introduce a robust legal framework for its safe processing and use
to prevent the outbreak of animal diseases.
The Pig Idea is
campaigning for a revision to EU Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 to allow for the
inclusion of animal by-products and catering waste in feed for omnivorous non-ruminants.
The campaign argues that, to ensure food safety, the revised law would need to
require all catering waste to be sufficiently heat-treated through centralised
feed plants.
As the NPA
suggests, the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak is thought to have been caused by
“feedinginadequately treated catering waste to pigs”. The
establishment of a stringently regulated and monitored feed industry dedicated
to the processing of catering waste (and other food waste containing animal
by-products) would address the risk of such an
outbreak occurring again, whilst also reducing a) feed costs for
farmers, b) waste disposal costs for food businesses, and c) the environmental
impact of livestock farming.
The Pig Idea is
also campaigning to encourage the use of legally permissible food waste such as
fruit, vegetables and bakery waste from non-catering food businesses such as
supermarkets and manufacturers.
Hobby pig-keepers
can engage with this aspect of the campaign byfeeding pigs any fruit and
vegetables direct from their garden or allotment. However, as the
NPA states, "In Britain and throughout the European Union it
is illegal to feed raw or cooked catering waste to pigs, including waste from
household kitchens”.
END
For more
information or images please contact campaign@thepigidea.org
www.thepigidea.org | @ThePigIdea
#thepigidea
Sign The Pig Idea pledge online now to
show your commitment to reducing your own food waste and show food businesses
that you want them to do the same.