Letter: Swill on the fields

From Alan Horton

You report that feeding pigs with swill may be banned
(17 March, p 11).
There are already stringent regulations on kitchen waste, covering collection,
premises, inspection, records and processing (which has to take place at 100
°C). The product must not be consumed by cattle.

However, some authorities are even now advocating that the same material be
collected by waste management licensees and subjected to large-scale centralised
treatment at temperatures up to 65 °C. They intend to spread the resulting
product on agricultural land or urban landscaped areas as a soil
conditioner.

There are no comparable specific statutory regulations regarding such a
process.

Moreover, this aerobic process adds to the health risk by multiplying and
distributing the ubiquitous pathogenic and allergenic fungi. There are more
sustainable localised methods of composting available that make a safer and
better product. Surely the same level of precaution should be exercised to
protect livestock and people from this crude, hazardous procedure.

Kings Lynn, Norfolk