#thepigidea

[jdaviescoates]

via Twitter https://twitter.com/jdaviescoates

[thepigidea]

The Pig Idea Feast

On the 21st November The Pig Idea team served over 5,000 portions of food to the public for free.

Each of the seven participating restaurants handed out a variety of dishes using pork that had been reared by the campaign at Stepney City Farm on a diet of food that otherwise would have been wasted.

The team were joined by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Sara Cox, Giles Coren, Valentine Warner, Stevie Parle and Bruno Loubert on the day who all got on stage to wow  the audience with some interesting pork-based cooking demos - from trotters to tounge!

Staying true to the campaign's ethos of nose-to-tail eating, the blood of the pigs was used by David Philpot from Paternoster Chophouse for his infamous black pudding scotch eggs, and the livers, lungs and hearts were used by culinary diploma students from Westminster Kingsway College to make an offal terrine.

     All of this and we even had time for a pig & food waste themed ceilidh slap bang in the middle of Trafalgar Square... 

 .

The aim of the feast was to raise awareness of the issues surrounding the feeding of crops to pigs in order to gather support for The Pig Idea campaign which seeks to utilise food waste as a valuable and effect alternative feed for pigs.

The Pig Idea have been rearing 8 pigs on Stepney City Farm since June this year on a diet of legally permissible food waste. The aim of this demonstration was to show that not only is this method of feeding pigs safe and environmentally friendly, but that the end product is also delicious.

A key message of the day was that whilst we all need to reduce our meat consumption drastically, the remaining meat that we do eat needs to come not only from animals that have been bred and reared under the highest welfare standards, but also from animals that have been fed in the most sustainable way, whether that's food waste fed pork or pasture-fed beef.

As a result 7,444 people have now signed The Pig Idea pledge to not only reduce their own food waste but also to show that they want food businesses to start adhering to the food waste hierarchy.

There's been some ab-swill-lutely brilliant press coverage over the past few days which can be found here. Photographs from the day can be found on the Feeding the 5000 Facebook page. We've also got a short film coming shortly so stay tuned!

The Pig Idea would like to thank the following for their tremendous support in helping organise and fund the feast:

Alex Burrows Events, The Mayor of London, London Food, Wahaca, The Zetter Group, Cabana, D&D London, Soho House, Rex Restaurant Associates, Ballymaloe Cookery School, The River Cafe, Stepney City Farm, Clean Bean, Gringa Dairy, the White Hart Brewery, Reynolds, Bio Collectors, Compassion in World Farming, Farms Not Factories, Friends of the Earth, Slow Food London, Miranda Godfrey and her students from Westminster Kingsway College, Adam Taffler, Green House PR, Story PR, and of course all of our ham-azing volunteers:

Finally, a huge thank you from The Pig Idea team to everyone who came to support the campaign - oink!

All photo credits go to Ki Price, Karolina Webb & Diana Jarvis respectively.

[f5k]

The Pig Idea

The Pig Idea is the latest campaign from Feeding the 5000 that aims to provide a positive solution to the global food waste scandal. The campaign aims to change European law so that we can return to the traditional practice of feeding surplus food to pigs in order to:

Liberate food supplies, particularly cereal crops, so that these can be eaten by people instead of being fed to pigs;

Lower feed costs for pig farmers, and so help to protect the British pig industry;

Avoid the economic and environmental costs of disposing of food waste, including dumping food waste in landfill sites and leaving it to rot which produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas;

Protect landscapes rich in biodiversity, such as the precious Amazonian rainforest, that are under pressure to grow crops to feed pigs;

Create jobs and revenue in the new eco-feed industry that will be needed to collect, treat and distribute surplus food so that it can be fed to pigs.

June the 5th is celebrated around across the globe as World Environment Day. This year’s themes are Food Waste and Sustainable Consumption. As part of this year’s many global activities The Pig Idea is launching as London’s latest positive solution to combat the global food waste scandal.

 “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.” - Tristram Stuart

So what is The Pig Idea?

In short, the Pig Idea is to lift the ban on feeding catering waste to pigs. In the meantime, even without a change in the law, we could be feeding more legally permissible food by-products to livestock and this should be made a priority by supermarkets and the whole food industry. In order to achieve our goal it is vital to capture the support of the public and policy makers.  

As part of the campaign, the Feeding the 5000 team in partnership with Wahaca Mexican Restaurants will be rearing 8 pigs in London’s very own Stepney City Farm starting from the end of May. The pigs will be cared for by the farm and will be fed on a healthy diet based primarily on food waste that can be legally fed to pigs.

The pig’s menu consists of a nutrition mix of whey from Gringa Dairy, a Mexican cheese maker in Peckham; brewer’s grains from London Fields Brewery; Okara (a soybean byproduct) from London’s only tofu producer,Clean Bean; and fruit and vegetable waste from Reynolds.

At the end of this public demonstration we will use the pork produced on the farm in a feast in London’s Trafalgar Square where we will provide a free meal to thousands of people as a way to raise awareness of the campaign and the issues, joined by some of the UK’s best chefs will be onsite cooking up their favorite porky dishes.

So join The Pig Idea and LET THEM EAT WASTE!

  @ThePigIdea | #thepigidea

[thepigidea]

Pig's Stygest: Updates from the Farm

An expert vet's visit to Stepney City Farm for the pigs' regular health checks is becoming a welcome fixture.

James Adams from the Royal Veterinary College's Farm Animal Clinical Centre made his second call last monday. He was accompanied by a group of eager student vets: what's the collective noun for them, I wonder?

It's fun watching the pigs flop over eager for tummy tickles, in blissful ignorance of stethoscopes, thermometers and measuring tapes that check sure their weight is on target.

James has lots of quickfire questions for tomorrow's vets about any signs or symptoms or potential nasties.

There no signs of any disease today: to be exact, there were no signs of respiratory problems e.g. coughing, no signs of enteric disease such as weight loss, no skin issues (lesions) or musculoskeletal disease such as lameness or joint swelling.

We need to keep an eye on Alpha Pig, who has managed to push enough of his siblings out of the way at feeding time to put on an extra five kilos.

But James is pleased to report that they're bright, responsive and able to enjoy the Five Freedoms.

There's time for a quick hello to some of our other animals, which is good news for the Farm. I have no doubt any signs of poor condition would be noticed.

On his first visit, James kindly took a look at Trixie: the sheep with the longest pregnancy on record. Our suspicions that her vast roundness was down to overeating were confirmed. Perhaps we should put her and Alpha Pig in together and may the greediest animal win...

Karen Hart, Communications Officer, Stepney City Farm's Local Food Project

[thepigidea]

Listen above to Charlotte Smith interviewing Stepney City Farm & The Pig Idea for BBC Radio 4 Farming Today (20/6/13).

www.bbc.co.uk

[thepigidea]

The Pig Idea responds to criticisms from certain sections of the pig industry

The Pig Idea campaign, which is calling for food waste to be put back on the menu for pigs in Britain and across Europe, has issued a response to claims by representatives of the National Pig Association (NPA) and the British Pig Executive (BPEX) that the campaign, while “well-intentioned” and “superficially attractive”, is guilty of over-simplifying the issue of feeding waste food to pigs.

In fact, there is more common ground between The Pig Idea, the NPA and BPEX than might be supposed. For example, the NPA’s position paper on feeding food waste to pigs[1] states that “Central processing plants for waste food may be an option for the future”. This is exactly what The Pig Idea campaign is calling for: a well-regulated, well-monitored system of recycling plants that can convert food waste – including catering waste and other types of food waste not currently permitted by law – safely into livestock feed.

The NPA rightly points out that establishing a modern system for the recycling of food waste into livestock feed brings with it “a raft of issues that must be addressed first.” Again, this is in line with the position of The Pig Idea, which is calling for more research to be conducted into these issues (and indeed its campaigners have been doing so since 2008). The British Government eventually commissioned a study[2] on this subject which was published by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) in 2013, and its conclusion was that more work needs to be done on the details of how such a system could be established and the potential environmental and economic benefits of doing so.

BPEX, which recently contacted high-profile supporters of The Pig Idea to warn them that the campaign was guilty of over-simplifying the issue (whilst also misrepresenting the campaign by stating incorrectly that it calls for the use of domestic food waste as livestock feed), has since conceded that “no-one would disagree” with the proposal that centralised food-waste-to-pig-feed recycling plants are a possibility for the future.

The NPA, BPEX and The Pig Idea share the view that any system for the safe recycling of food waste has to deal robustly with potential risks. Most prominent of these risks is food waste becoming a vector for animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease, Classical Swine Fever and African Swine Fever. This subject has been studied in depth, and every study agrees that cooking food waste is 100 per cent effective at killing the pathogens to which pigs are susceptible.

Producing feed for livestock requires a licence and oversight from the Local Authority, in the same way that producing food for people does. With such regulation in place, farmers and the public can be assured that food waste recycling plants will operate safely. In the plants visited by The Pig Idea co-founder Tristram Stuart in Japan,[3] all the food waste is sterilised as it passes through a tube. Such a system can be regulated by connecting a thermometer in the tube to a computer, which in turn is connected to a regulatory authority with oversight of the industry.

In weighing up the risks, costs and benefits, it is important to remember that the risk of animal disease from food waste does not disappear just because we aren’t feeding it to pigs. Composting plants and anaerobic digestion plants also have to ensure that any food waste entering their facilities is sterilised by heat, because the fertiliser they produce is spread on farmland where livestock can come into contact with it. Meanwhile, much untreated food waste ends up in landfill sites that are populated by vermin (including birds) capable of dropping infected materials on nearby farmland, which could also cause a disease outbreak. Arguably, a safe, economically viable system for the sterilising and recycling of this material into a valuable product would help to contain and manage such risks, rather than exacerbate them.

Those in favour of maintaining the ban often claim it is needed because there will always be law-breakers who get around the rules. It is certainly true that we need a regulated system to minimise the risks posed by such behavior; but it is by no means true that the existing laws are never broken. Many pig farmers already feed potato peels and the like from kitchens to pigs, partly because they hold the laws in disrepute. The Pig Idea therefore disagrees with the NPA’s claim that the current ban is 100 per cent enforceable. Introducing a legalised regulatory system would be one way of managing this risk better.

Another risk cited by the NPA and BPEX is that of contamination by unwanted substances: someone throws a lightbulb or bottle of bleach in the pig bucket, for example. However, just as any company found to be supplying its customers with contaminated food would be shut down, so would any company providing pig farmers with contaminated feed. Moreover, harmful materials such as pieces of plastic can and do find their way into conventional feed.

There is perhaps less consensus between The Pig Idea and the NPA and BPEX regarding the environmental impact of conventional pig feed – particularly with regard to its use of imported soy, the production of which is linked to the destruction of valuable ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado grasslands. Pig farmer and BPEX board member Alastair Butler wrote in The Huffington Post[4] that “many” pig farmers plan to use soy procured from Argentina and North America through a “responsible sourcing” scheme (the Round Table on Responsible Soy). The benefits of this scheme are not clear, and besides, any net increase in the global demand for soy will lead ultimately to the clearing of more virgin land to create soy monocultures, destroying more habitats of vulnerable species of wildlife, while increasing soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.

Butler also points out, as does the NPA, that some British pig farmers are replacing some of the soy in their feed with home-grown legumes. However, in our globalised food system, this still increases the net demand for agricultural land – which still has the knock-on effect elsewhere in the world of increasing deforestation. Indeed, in many cases, using local pulses requires even more land, because these crops aren’t as efficient as soy at producing protein per acre.

A study commissioned by BPEX did in fact highlight that the production of feed was overwhelmingly the biggest environmental impact of pork production, and that replacing conventional feed with alternatives was an enormous opportunity for the pig industry.[5]

There is an issue of social justice here that the NPA and BPEX do not address: namely that by buying huge quantities of grain on the global market to feed our livestock, we are diminishing the ability of people in poor countries to feed themselves. Studies show that around 36 per cent of the global harvest is used to feed livestock, including 97 per cent of all soy production [6], and 74 per cent of maize.[7] Not only is this a waste of limited resources (farm animals only give back on average around a third of the calories they consume in the form of meat, milk and eggs); North American and European livestock are effectively outbidding poor African, Asian and Latin American people on the world food market.

The solution is clear. We need to use livestock for the purpose for which they were first domesticated: that is, to increase net food availability by harnessing resources that can’t otherwise be used. The UN has estimated that if we were to feed livestock primarily on waste and surplus food and agricultural byproducts, we could liberate enough grain to feed three billion people[8] – far more than the number we expect to be sharing our planet with by 2050. In the case of pigs, that means eating up waste and by-products from our food supply. During the Second World War, these were the only types of food that could legally be fed to pigs; feeding them grain that could have been eaten by humans was a fineable offence. Butler and the NPA make the point that even today, the British pig industry uses around a million tonnes of ‘co- and byproducts’ per year, amounting to around forty per cent of pig feed (though some of these ingredients, such as palm oil kernel, also contribute to the destruction of rainforests). We should be aiming for as close to 100 per cent as possible.  Much more can be done under current legislation, and still more would be possible if the ban on feeding certain types of food waste (such as catering waste[9]) were lifted.

It is time to lay aside the differences and focus on constructive dialogue – and The Pig Idea is optimistic about the possibility of achieving this, as the campaign presents very substantial economic savings for farmers who currently spend an average of sixty per cent of their costs on feed. Pig farmers in Europe are therefore at a substantial disadvantage compared to pig farmers in other parts of the world where using food waste is encouraged, such as in Japan, China, parts of the USA, New Zealand and across Africa and Asia. Waste producers in the catering sector also stand to gain by avoiding the increasing costs of disposing of food waste. A sustainable industry recycling food waste into pig feed would create jobs, profits and huge environmental benefits. Following a lively debate about the pros and cons of re-introducing swill-feeding at the Young NPA’s recent National Meeting (which brings together pig farmers under the age of forty), Tristram Stuart asked the audience how many of them had started the day being against the idea but were now open to the idea. Encouragingly, around a third of them raised their hands. 

The Pig Idea has been involved in discussions with representatives of the NPA and BPEX about how best to explore the technicalities of introducing a system of safe, centralised food waste recycling plants for pig feed. An agreement has been reached to find a suitable neutral body to convene a panel of experts from a range of professional backgrounds including nutritionists, veterinarians, agricultural engineers, regulatory bodies such as Defra and the Food Standards Agency, and scientists behind the modern systems established in countries such as Japan. It is hoped that a first meeting of this group will be held in the early part of 2014.

  [1] The National Pig Association, November 2013, “NPA position of feeding ‘waste food’ to pigs” http://www.npa-uk.org.uk/Pages/waste_food.html

[2] Fera, 2013 (research conducted 2011-2012), “Recycling of catering and food waste” http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&Completed=0&ProjectID=17580 

[3] Several Japanese food waste recycling plants are described in detail in Stuart’s book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, Penguin (2009).

[4] Alastair Butler, 26 November 2013, “The Problem with the ‘Pig Idea’”, The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alastair-butler/pig-idea-free-range_b_4344209.html   

[5] Kingston, et.al, 2009. Scoping Life Cycle Assessment of Pork Production: Final Report. Environmental Resources Management. http://www.bpex.org.uk/prices-facts-figures/documents/LifeCycelAssmntofPorklaunchversion.pdf

[6] Henning Steinfeld et al, 2006, “Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental issues and options”, UN FAO http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

[7] Emily Cassidy et al, August 2013, “Redefining agricultural yields: from tonnes to people nourished per hectare”, Environmental Research Letters 8 034015 http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf/1748-9326_8_3_034015.pdf

[8] United Nations Environment Programme (2009), The Environmental Food Crisis – The Environment’s Role in Averting Future Food Crises. A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment, ed. C. Nellemann et al., February 2009, p. 19

[9] The latest study by the Government’s Waste Resources and Action Programme revealed that 920,000 tonnes of food waste are produced by catering outlets each year, and only 12% is currently recycled. WRAP, November 2013, “Overview of Waste in the UK Hospitality and Food Service Sector” http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Overview%20of%20Waste%20in%20the%20UK%20Hospitality%20and%20Food%20Service%20Sector%20FINAL_0.pdf

[thepigidea]

The masterminds behind our branding are none other than BuroCreative. They even used food to make our logo!

[thepigidea]

The Pig Idea + Raw = Food Revolution!

We've teamed up with Raw to bring down the barriers to feeding food waste to pigs. Join us!

Raw expose the raw truths of factory farming and aim to build a movement for better food and farming. 

One of the objectives of The Pig Idea, in encouraging pigs to be fed on food waste, is to alleviate the financial pressures felt by farmers because of rising grain prices. Farmers tend to spend between 60-70% of their costs on feed and so many higher welfare, more sustainable, pig farmers are going out of business. By changing the way in which we feed out animals more money can be spent focusing on the welfare of these animals.

So join us and Raw in kickstarting the food and farming revolution! Sign the pledge today via www.raw.info/take-action

(note: if you have already signed the pledge at thepigidea.org please do not re-pledge as your second pledge will not be counted.)

[thepigidea]

"...removing the legislation surrounding waste food would alleviate financial pressures on pig farmers, allowing many to redirect expenditure towards better welfare standards."

A Good Life - a remote ownership pig farming initiative that helps consumers buy pork knowing exactly where their meat comes from and how its been raised.

A Good Life have signed The Pig Idea pledge, has your food business?

[thepigidea]

If our feast in November is just too far away do not fear! London's popup pork specialists Wiggies have got you sorted! 

Join us on the 13th August at Platterform to pig out on Wiggies famous Pig Macs & Cocktails.

The pork has been sourced from Pig&Co. who's sustainable approach to caring for their free-range rare breed pigs means the pigs are even fed on surplus fruit and vegetables - that's The Pig Idea!

Pig&Co. are currently also working on their award-winning sausages to produce a Pig Idea special - stay tuned for more!

Tickets for the event are sure to sell out fast so grab them while you can at www.grubclub.com - 10% of the ticket price goes to The Pig Idea campaign.

www.wiggieslondon.com | @WiggiesLondon 

www.thepigidea.org | @ThePigIdea

[thepigidea]

Listen above to Conall O’ Morain interviewing The Pig Idea about the economic benefits of feeding food waste to pigs on Ireland's Today FM (16/6/13).

www.todayfm.com

[thepigidea]

Press Coverage

Greenhouse PR are working with Feeding the 5000 and The Pig Idea to bring it national attention.

Farmers v celebrity chefs in pig diet battle - The Observer (24/11/13)

What's The Pig Idea? - The Telegraph (22/11/13)

To the trough - The Economist (21/11/13)

Free Public Feast for Pig Idea – Evening Standard (21/11/2013) 

Top chefs campaign for feeding pigs on food waste – The Guardian (21/11/13)

What’s The Pig Idea? - BusinessGreen (21/11/13) 

What’s The Pig Idea? – Red Online (21/11/13)

Campaigners want food waste back on the menu for pigs - Farmers Guardian (20/11/13)

The Pig Idea: Getting Food Waste Back on the Menu for Our Pigs - The Huffington Post (19/11/13)

The Pig Idea: a free feast in aid of leftovers - The Telegraph (14/11/13)

Time for Europe to make less of a meal of pig feed, says DJ Sara Cox - Evening Standard (04/11/13)

Q&A: Tristram Stuart - Digest Magazine (14/10/13)

How will we feed nine billion people? - Deutsche Welle (02/08/13)

Profiting from food waste is no longer just for bin divers - The Telegraph (13/09/13)

  Food waste for pigs campaign welcomed by ADBA - MRW Magazine (28/08/13)

How to Use Food Waste in Better Ways - The Pig Site (26/08/13)

Campaigners have 'Pig Idea' to recycle food waste - Energy News Live (22/08/13)

Feed pigs food waste, say campaigners - Resource (22/08/13)

Should pig swill from waste food be back on the menu? - BBC News (21/08/13)

What's the pig idea? - Pub and Bar Magazine (19/08/13)

Food waste ban is costing pig farms and forests dear - Oxford Mail (26/07/13)

Why can't food waste be fed to pigs? - The Observer (14/07/13)

 A Londra anche i maialini si nutrono a km zero - Reed Gourmet (Italy) (2/07/13)

 «Cucina all'antica» per maialini d'allevamento - Corriere Della Sera (Italy) (1/07/2013)

Voedselverspilling - Uitzendinggemist (Netherlands) (28/06/2013)

  Swill-feeding should be restored for pigs - Western Morning News (19/6/13)

Be Wary Of Pig Campaign Idea - North-West evening mail (18/6/13)

East End farm launches The Pig Idea - The Wharf (13/6/13)

The Pig Idea: Thomasina Miers and Tristram Stuart start campaign to feed restaurant food waste to pigs - Big Hospitality (10/6/13)

Let pigs eat leftovers, say green activists (print) - Daily Telegraph (7/6/13)

Feed leftovers to pigs, say campaigners (print) - Western Daily Press (7/6/13)

MasterChef winner ready for a scrap over ban on giving leftovers to pigs - Evening Standard (6/6/13)

Calls for UK pigs to be fed food leftovers - The Journal (6/6/13)

Campaign calls for a return to feeding pigs waste - Farmers Guardian (5/6/13)

Pigs should be fed leftovers to cut waste, say campaigners - Huffington Post (5/6/13)