What to do with food waste?

[shortly]

Ok this seems a simple enough task on the surface, worms (dont have any at present but should get some again), compost, poultry, small live animals etc

However after reading about " UK Ban on feeding of kitchen scraps to pet poultry and other pet farmed animals" and a recent brush with mites on korean mushrooms and a past introduction of sweet potato weevil Cylas sp. to my garden via peelings from supermarket sweet potato that took years to eradicate I began to think perhaps i'd best rethink how i do things.

I realize that a one size fits all approach may not be appropriate given that i could potentially be dealing with hundreds of pest organisms from fungi to arthropods.

I'm loathed to waste so much good organic matter, do i just boil up ALL my imported (imported as in not from my garden) veg scraps & bury them in the garden & plant more cuy fodder?

What are other peoples thoughts?

Oh and for those interested in the new UK law.

http://animalhealth.defra.gov.uk/managing-disease/animalbyproducts/collection-feeding-abp/Ban-on-feeding-of-kitchen-scraps-to-pet-poultry-and-other-pet-farmed-animals.asp

[Stillman]

interesting. did you know that the bulk of deep fryer oil waste from commercial food outlets is sold to animal feed lots to bulk out grains etc for cattle/chicken feed. Alot of these oils are animal fat based or god knows what else. So for the last 90 to 120 days your steak most likely would have been fed on its self or similar. Also blood and bone and rendered waste was often used to bulk and add proteins. Mad cow anyone lol

Edited October 31, 2012 by Stillman

[Sallubrious]

You could always solarise the scraps before you feed them to them worms or compost them etc. Chuck it in a garbage bag or a sealed drum and wack it in the sun for about two or three days. That should kill any pests.

If you leave it too long it will start to anaerobically decompose and liquify. It stinks like you wouldn't believe but the worms love it.

[shortly]

Hmmmm i dunno about the stinky option for me SallyD, SWMBO has already put an end to my seaweed tea on stinky grounds.

Although using the end product for worms is appealing.

[ghosty]

hmmm, why not heat the matter in a big pot kept for that purpose only? that would kill most things in it i'd think. it might even smell good (to some degree).

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

id ignore the uk chicken ban and get a chicken or two

[whitewind]

Sounds well over the top to me. If you are worried, cook the food first but really, it is unhealthy to live in a completely disease free environment - immune systems get weak and prone to strong attack from a single pest. Monocultures require a disease free environment, but healthy permaculture and natural systems can resist pest attack as there is a healthy immune system (with plants, that usually means other insects, fungi and bacteria that live on potential pests). You don't have a monoculture, so if you get an infestation treat it. Otherwise don't worry. I reckon chickens in an urban environment are weakened by pollution and lack of exposure to wild animal / bird pests and also urbanites aren't so cluey about care, which might help understand the British response.

I heard of a recent study on Chrysanthemums which had a shocking result; Chrysanthemums grown in aseptic environments lost the ability to protect themselves against pest attack; this happened at the genetic level, or so the researchers seemed to believe. This happened after about 8 generations, I think. When exposed to pests, their natural immunity had been completely lost and the plants couldn't recover. Wish I had a link, I will try and Google it.

[Foo]

Boiling your scrapps? Id think the energy used boiling food scraps would defeat the purpose.

[shortly]

I agree that permaculture and natural systems can resist pest attack WW, i'm not trying to keep my garden aseptic beyond the mushroom room, god knows i have a plethora of minor pests & diseases, what i'm desperately trying to avoid is introducing another pest or disease that isnt going to be naturally controlled.

Surely its better to prevent an infestation than the long term treating to combat it. An as was the case with my sweet potato weevil when chemical treatments failed i had to destroy quite a few plants to remove all the possible hosts, some pests just have no easy answer.

For an example outdoor tomatoes here are a write off thanks to TYLCV & now TSWV which is also nailing my cucurbits The only solution to which i have is either grown in a screened glasshouse which is over full now or not grow tomatoes & now cucurbits, personally i would prefer not to have the pests & diseases in the first place & since our grubbyment seems happy to keep letting dirty imports to continue the best i can do is minimize the risk on my own patch.

My chicken keeping days are over Hillbilly nothing to do with the UK ban (beyond what the bureaucrats here will make of it) since i prefer to hatch my own it was Marek´s disease that turned me off chooks. Ducks are a slightly better option up here but SWMBO has already ruled against having ducks again on the smell factor, but i cant small anything dear

Yep Eatfoo it looks like boiling, burning or PC could be the go since i dont seem to be having much joy finding a nonstinky digester design.

And as for energy i have an endless supply of palm fronds to feed the rocket stove, just means i will need to sit there watching & feeding the stove, with beers of course for a coupla hours a few times a week.

Edited November 1, 2012 by shortly

[Sallubrious]

Maybe a biochar system could be put to use, especially if you acid soil. They make that out of all sort of shit.

[whitewind]

The ancient system of letting an area go fallow for a year or two should get rid of nasty viruses, so long as the local area isn't infested too, or there are weeds which might harbour the virus for a while. It's a bugger when things get out of hand like this, it seems so energy intensive to cook everything before use. I did hear that some Chinese rural areas were prone to various diseases hosted by veggies when they used human faeces as manure (also pig faeces) that wasn't properly treated. Unfortunately I think our own waste, even when treated effectively, is not allowed to be used on crops for human consumption because of these concerns. Recycling isn't as straightforward as we would like.

Another solution could be to have a community garden where waste food scraps could be properly processed - a bit energy intensive as it travels off-site, also the risk of disease transfer is greater, but the facilities you could use to properly treat the waste could be more effective. Do you have anything like that locally?

[shortly]

Hey i like that idea SalyD, now how to get it to work with wet material? Or perhaps i can harness the waste heat to dry the next lot of waste to be carbonized?

[shortly]

I do rotate my annuals & things like sweet potato & yams from bed to bed to prevent a build up of soil borne diseases WW but unfortunately the distance between beds & from beds to neighbors, parks & weeds etc is so close that most things just hop the gap & far to many soil borne critters just waltz on over

I suspect there is a pool of TSWV & TYLCV in solanaceous weeds around the area somewhere & its the occasional sap sucking insect that introduces them back time & time again. I can start clean new seedlings & have them grow just fine for weeks or even months then suddenly virused material everywhere.

Unfortunately no community gardens anywhere near here, i have to travel the better part of an hour either north or south to the nearest.

The local council does its best to discourage anyone impermanent to suggest such a thing, usually by demanding all manner of complex regulations that are meant for medium to heavy industry be adhered to

Oh and rent on an overgrown unused site of $50k per year, that was over a year ago, last time i looked there seemed to be some interesting tall weeds growing Sorry, i'm still shitty about that.

Edited November 1, 2012 by shortly

[WoodDragon]

The UK response to feeding kitch scraps to chooks is somewhat over the top. Their fear is bird flu, but sensible treatment will kill the virus:

They can also be inactivated by heating to 56°C (133°F) for a minimum of 60 minutes

The thing is, if someone's scraps are contaminated, the people handling it will likely have the virus anyway, and will be more likely to infect the birds that the scraps will.

Anyway, it's not a big deal in Australia at the moment, although that could always change depending on what happens overseas. Quarantine have a sentinel chook program IIRC, so there should be adequate warning if it comes in via migratory birds.

On the matter of Marek's it's possible to clean and disinfect all sheds and gear, and spell for a few months. There are breeders who will sell vaccinated birds, and I know that some varities are fairly resistant, although I'm not sure off the top of my head which ones. I don't know what is the current minimum batch size for vacccines, but in a year or so I'll be breeding on a small commercial scale so I'll be vaccinating against it - once I've sorted out the costs and logicstics I'll update and let others know of any way that the small-scale keeper might get around this bugger of a disease.