KarunaNews Story

Koichi Takahashi’s Japan Food Ecology Center is saving money, reducing waste, and curtailing emissions by turning leftover human food into high-quality pig feed through fermentation. He began in 1998, when the Japanese government launched a project promoting ways to convert otherwise wasted resources into livestock feed. But lengthy troubleshooting was needed to craft a lactic acid-fermented, liquified feed product and extend the shelf life of the "ecofeed". His center in Sagamihara processes about 40 tons of food waste per day. Eco-pork now is carried by dozens of restaurants, supermarkets and department stores around Japan, and generates more than 350m yen (£1.8m/$2.3m) in annual sales. Last year, Takahashi also got into biogas – renewable energy produced from methane fermentation - which expands the types of food that the plant can accept.