Friday saw 5000 people and pigs served a free lunch in Trafalgar Square as campaign group Friends of the Earth aimed to publicise concerns over the amount of food thrown away in Britain. Friends of the Earth’s ‘feeding of the 5,000’ involved serving apple juice and food made from ‘wonky’ vegetables that would not meet supermarket criteria and would have otherwise been wasted.

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A number of pigs were also present at the event, enjoying leftover apple pulp to highlight the potential of food waste for feeding farm animals. 16 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year, costing around £22bn. According to the group, the majority of the wasted food could be eaten by people or diverted to feed farm animals, however, much of it ends up buried in landfill or incinerated.

Friends of the Earth held Friday’s event to raise awareness of the possibilities that already exist in the UK for feeding people and animals without relying too heavily on animal feed imported thousands of miles. The group called for legally permissible surplus food in the UK to be diverted to feed animals.

Senior Food Campaigner, Clare Oxborrow, said, "It's crazy that food scraps that could feed farm animals end up being buried or burned while farmers waste cash on imported feed that harms communities and forests overseas. The Government must make it easier for food that can't be eaten by people to be fed to animals, such as schemes that link up food retailers and farmers."

However, the National Pig Association reacted strongly to Friends of the Earth’s calls, referring to the event as a "stunt" and claiming that the environmental group’s message is "unhelpful."

Feeding waste from a range of establishments to animals on a commercial scale has been banned since the foot and mouth crisis in 2001. The NPA said strictly controlled conditions must be in place otherwise the practice would risk causing outbreaks of disease including foot-and-mouth and classical swine fever.

NPA general manager Dr Zoe Davies said, "We find it difficult enough trying to explain to people why it is wrong to feed waste food to pigs without this kind of high profile stunt, however well meant. We understand that Friends of the Earth have acted with the best of intentions and have been at pains to comply with all the legal issues but we remain concerned that promoting the image of pigs eating waste food is unhelpful."

Speaking to Farming Online following the NPA criticism, Ms Oxborrow qualified that the event in Trafalgar Square and the Feeding of the 5000 campaign were aimed at persuading government to do more to reduce waste. She reiterate that legality and safety were of paramount importance and said  Friends of the Earth supported the Food Waste Pyramid, which promotes first redistribution to feed people, then diverting legally permissible food waste to animal feed, then composting and AD, with disposal as a last resort. 

She said, “We realise that there are practical barriers to making better use of food waste as animal feed, especially around segregation. That’s why we are calling on the Government to encourage local authorities to facilitate the better use of legally permissible food waste as animal feed. This would include addressing issues around contamination and segregation and include, for example, setting up hubs to connect food businesses and farmers locally.”

More information on the campaign is available here.