Food Scraps To Feed Animals

Type of practice Reuse for feed

Name of practice Food Scraps To Feed Animals

Name of main actor Barthold Family Farms, Inc., Minnesota

Type of actor(s) Company

Location United States of America

Stage of implementation End-of-life

Year of implementation 1998

What was/is being done? Since 1988, Barthold Family Farms Inc., a family owned business in the St. Francis, Minnesota area, has collected food from restaurants, hotels, schools, nursing homes, grocery stores and even large food processors. Their family farms currently farm over 1000 collective acres feeding processed recyclable food to several thousand pigs while providing service to hundreds of commercial customers. Today, Barthold collects food scraps from about 400 commercial customers in the St. Francis, Minnesota area each month. Barthold pioneered a method of cooking the food scraps in the trucks after collection. Steam pipes are hooked to the truck for 20 minutes, increasing the temperature enough to kill potentially harmful bacteria. Once cooked, the food waste is fed to the pigs and cows. Barthold operates a full circle practice by also composting the manure from the animals for fertilizer used both onsite and offsite.

Outcomes and impacts Customers save money by paying Barthold to haul their food waste and feed it to pigs and cattle because it reduces taxes, disposal costs, and fees at landfills. Customers pay 30% less to recycle their food waste instead of throwing it away. Barthold processes around 1,000 tons of food scraps per month.