Japan Looks to Broaden Food Recycling Network

This network already includes pig farmers, who use animal feed derived from food waste recycled from Ministop convenience stores. It will now be expanded to rice farmers, who will use manure from the pig farms as fertilizer to grow their crops.

Both the pork from the pig farmers and the produce from the rice growers are to be used in the lunch boxes and other prepared foods sold at Ministop stores, completing the circle.

Marubeni will help recruit rice farmers to participate in the program. The expanded recycling network is already being tested with some farmers with the aim of shifting into high gear in 2009, using the network for 15 per cent of the roughly 13,000 tons of rice used annually by the Ministop chain.

ThePigSite News Desk

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