The Waste-Feeders’ Manual: Research and Development of a Practical Guide for Feeding Food Loss and Waste to Hogs and Laying Hens in the Northeast

Commodities

• Animals: poultry, swine
• Animal Products: eggs, meat

Practices

• Sustainable Communities: food loss and waste recovery/reduction, food sovereignty

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the United States wastes the equivalent of 35% of its food supply each year, contributing substantially to the greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of waste disposal. Food waste is a significant obstacle to efficient use of limited agricultural resources, to improving food security, and to increasing the sustainability of our food systems. Despite recognition that feeding food waste to monogastric livestock presents a promising waste-prevention opportunity, and despite successful examples set by Japan and South Korea, the U.S. remains without the infrastructure, regulations, or guidance to encourage waste feeding to meaningfully impact the environmental and economic landscape. The use of food waste as animal feed presents a systems approach to waste reduction because it simultaneously: (1) decreases the environmental impacts of waste disposal and livestock feed production; (2) increases food security by liberating agricultural land from feed production in favor of diverse crops for human consumption; and (3) improves the economic efficiency of meat, egg, and dairy production by lowering feed costs and improving farm margins.

Practical guidance is necessary to enable farmers to capture the benefits of waste feeding at the local level by improving farm economics and local ecosystems. This project will: (1) test and optimize the feeding of diverse sources of food loss and waste to developing and finishing hogs and developing and mature laying hens in a diverse, pasture-based, rotationally grazed production system; and (2) develop a Waste-Feeder’s Manual, in conjunction with outreach efforts to stakeholders, containing practical guidance for sourcing and feeding regionally appropriate waste-based diets. 

Research will be conducted at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, with parallel and identical experimental and control hog and laying hen groups on one geographically separate partner farm. On each farm, using nutritional analysis and in consultation with an animal nutritionist, we will optimize experimental diets from locally sourced food loss and waste sources. Control groups will be fed a commercially-available, organic grain feed. We will also conduct sensory analyses, and additional nutritional analyses, of the meat and egg products of each animal group on each farm. Finally, we will demonstrate the benefits and trade-offs of feeding waste diets to each animal group by conducting a life cycle-style analysis of the economic, food loss and waste prevention, and GHG emission impacts of the optimal waste-fed system versus the organic grain-fed system. Using this data, and information learned from stakeholder outreach, we will produce an evidence-based training and technical assistance guide for producers and their communities. Additionally, we will explain our findings and encourage livestock farmers, chefs, policymakers, food businesses owners and community leaders to engage with each other at a Waste Feeding Conference to be held at the Stone Barns Center in year 3 of this project.

Through research and broadcast, our goal is to validate and democratize these food loss and waste feeding strategies and begin to shift cultural, market, and policy perceptions toward a deeper understanding of the value of waste-feeding.

Our objective is to research and broadcast best practices for optimizing food loss and waste (“FLW”) diets for hogs and laying hens to reduce on-farm, manufacturing, and pre-consumer restaurant and retail food waste in the Northeast region and beyond. This study will include economic and nutritional research to determine the benefits and trade-offs of an FLW diet for the economics of small farms, for environmental impacts, and for human nutrition. Research will be conducted at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture and replicated identically at one geographically separate partner farm. Specific project objectives are outlined in more detail below.

Objective 1:
Source and blend diets for hogs and laying hens to establish the optimal percentage and mix of FLW from our region that meets the dietary needs of each animal group. We will:

• Source and gather diverse FLW from multiple stages in our local food chain, including on-farm waste (fruit and vegetable waste), manufacturing waste (spent brewer’s grains), and pre-consumer restaurant and retail waste (restaurant and grocery store fruit, vegetable, fish, and dairy waste);
• Analyze the composite nutritional composition of each FLW source at regular intervals over the life of the project;
• Analyze the nutritional composition of commercially-available organic grain feeds fed to each control group; and
• Engage an animal nutritionist to assist in blending complete FLW diets meeting all dietary needs of hogs and laying hens.

Objective 2: Measure the effects of feeding the optimized FLW diet on both production and animal health and welfare for pastured hogs and pastured laying hens. We will:

• Feed an FLW diet to a population of pastured hogs at developing and finishing stages, alongside a control population fed a commercially available, organic, grain-based feed;
• Record and analyze health scores of both populations of hogs at regular intervals;
• Record and analyze the average daily weight gain of both populations of hogs;
• Feed an FLW diet to a population of pastured laying hens in developing and mature stages, with increasing FLW percentages at regular intervals, alongside a control population fed a commercially available, organic, grain-based feed;
• Record and analyze health scores of both populations of laying hens at regular intervals;
  and
• Record and analyze the hen-day egg production of both populations of laying hens.

Objective 3: Demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits and trade-offs of feeding FLW diets to each animal group for the economics of small farms. We will:

• Analyze the amount of FLW diverted to animal feed, by source, over the life of the study;
• Determine the cost, labor hours, and incidental expenses of sourcing, gathering, and blending effective FLW diets;
• Record the cost of commercially available, organic, grain-based feed fed to each control group; 
  and
• Compare potential greenhouse gas footprint of FLW diets versus the conventional.

Objective 4: Demonstrate that not only is it possible to meet the dietary needs of hogs and laying hens using regionally sourced FLW-based diets, but that such a diet produces high quality pork and egg products for human consumption. We will:

• Evaluate the carcass characteristics of hogs slaughtered from both populations;
• Conduct blind sensory analysis panels of pork harvested from both hog populations, including aroma and taste characteristics;
• Analyze the nutritional composition of pork harvested from both hog populations, including fatty acid profiles, macronutrient composition, micronutrient composition, and phytonutrients;
• Conduct blind sensory analysis panels of eggs harvested from both laying hen populations at each FLW interval, including aroma and taste characteristics; and
• Analyze the nutritional composition of eggs harvested from both laying hen populations at each FLW interval, including fatty acid profiles, macronutrient composition, micronutrient composition, and phytonutrients.

Objective 5: Utilize data and information learned from the above objectives to develop a “Waste-Feeders’ Manual” for complete FLW diet sourcing and feeding in the Northeast. While the manual will be particularly applicable to the Northeast region, our goal is to establish and recommend best practices that can be easily adapted to other regions of the country. We will:

• Conduct a survey of Northeast pork and egg producers to determine, among other things, industry demographics, availability of FLW sources, and the desire and need for specific FLW-feeding strategies and guidance to be addressed in the Manual; and
• Host a Waste-Feeding Conference for hog and laying hen farmers, chefs, butchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to present the results of this project and glean additional stakeholder priorities for inclusion in the Manual.

Objective 6: Broadcast project progress through the Stone Barns Centers’s (“SBC”) regular media channels, including regular posting to SBC social media and through SBC’s newsletter, and through SBC’s regular in-person programming offered to SBC members and the general public.

Objective 7:
Complete and submit at least two scientific manuscripts sharing the results of these studies. One paper will focus on the results of nutrient analyses of the FLW feed streams versus the nutrient analysis of the organic grain ration. At least one additional paper will focus on the nutritional comparison of the final products raised on the optimized FLW diets versus those raised on the organic grain rations. It is possible that this paper may be split into two, one for each animal group.