INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Hoosier pig farmers may have a new feed option in the near future. It’s an old idea with a modern twist: Recycled and treated food scraps from commercial kitchens.

An Indiana House bill was passed unanimously last month to allow commercial food scraps to be treated and processed into pellet-sized swine feed. H.B. 1170 will go to the Senate for consideration later this month.

"The state and federal law didn’t come together. We’re getting that fixed and taking out the roadblocks for processors. It just makes good sense to take waste and scoop it out of the landfill," said Rep. Matt Ubelhor (R-Bloomfield), who sponsored the bill.

This would give processors greater flexibility to treat recycled food scraps, under the direction of the Indiana Board of Animal Health (BOAH), said Sarah Simpson, director of legal affairs and enforcement for BOAH. The scraps would be heated to a prescribed temperature for 30 minutes to eliminate any pathogens or viruses that could be present in the food, she said.

Ubelhor said he was approached by two different constituents who believed theg Hoosier state code needed to be updated.

A retired schoolteacher wanted to see a better use for large volumes of food that were going into landfills, he explained.

Also, Stimulus Engineering in Loogootee contacted Ubelhor because it was exploring ways to process scraps into swine feed. Efforts to reach Stimulus by press time were unsuccessful.

Ubelhor searched for examples of kitchen scraps being used for swine feed nationally and found Rutgers University was donating 1.2 tons of food scraps per day to feed 3,000 hogs.

He also found another facility in Minnesota that was feeding 3,800 hogs.

While 83 percent of aluminum is recycled nationally, only 3 percent of food waste is recycled, he explained. Potential sources of food scraps are schools, universities, prisons, casinos and any other producer of large volumes of food waste, Simpson added.

Mike Lewis, co-owner of Lewis Pork Farms in Charlottesville, said he would investigate any new source of feed that becomes available, including recycled food waste.

"Ever since corn prices have gone up, we have looked for other energy sources. Corn is still the best and easiest option. The alternatives can be cheaper, but you have to consider the rations and nutritional content," he noted.

Lewis said he would also have to consider the feasibility of any new feed, such as transportation and storage; however, he doesn’t see that this option, if it becomes available, is any different from ethanol byproducts.

"Other byproducts are used to feed hogs. They were thrown away in the past. This is just another alternative that could be added to the list."

While expressing cautious support for the bill, the Indiana Pork Producers Assoc. believes most producers will continue feeding their pigs the same way, said Josh Trenary, executive director of Indiana Pork.

"We do not envision (the bill) changing the way the majority of our producers feed their pigs. A diet of corn and soybeans continues to be an economical and efficient way for pigs to grow and thrive," he said.