Reuters: Japan recycling more leftovers for animal feed
With prices for animal feed and fertilizer at record highs, Japan's food-recycling industry is seeing greater demand than ever before for pellets for pigs and poultry made from recycled leftovers. Japan disposes of about 20 million tons of food waste a year...Farmers had been reluctant to use recycled animal feed, but rising feed prices have made them more receptive to it. Recycled feed is about 50 percent cheaper than regular feed. Hiroyuki Yakou, a former garbage truck driver, became so frustrated with dumping loads of discarded food every day that he started a food recycling company, Agri Gaia System, Japan's largest maker of recycled animal feed. "It really was a waste," Yakou said. His drivers now cart truckloads of rice balls, sandwiches and milk discarded by 1,200 7-Eleven stores to his factory on the outskirts of Tokyo, where the food scraps are turned into dry and liquid animal feed for pigs and chickens. The feed is not used for cattle or sheep because of strict health regulations that were imposed to prevent mad cow disease..."A blind test of pork shows respondents tell the difference immediately," Yakou said. "That's because the fat of our pork is sweeter than usual. Another effect of tasty feed is that hens produce more eggs than usual"...Despite the "waste not, want not" attitude, some animal rights campaigners and nutritionists are critical of feeding animals leftovers that have often passed their use-by dates. Junichi Kowaka, head of Japan Offspring Fund, a consumer interest group, said feed made from fast food might lack minerals necessary for both humans and animals. "I think the chances are high that the animals will get sick if they eat only that kind of feed while being kept in artificial environments," he said...more...
