3,000 PIG CLUBS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 13, 9 October 1942, Page 5

3,000 PIG CLUBS

TURNING WASTE FOOD INTO 20,000„000LBS. OF BACON

Eighty new pig clubs are being formed in Britain each week. The pigs are kept mainly on waste foodstuffs and surplus vegetables, and the :5,000th club was registered by the Small Pig Keepers' Council a few weeks ago. About 9,000 tons of bacon or jiork, or 80,000,000 4 ounce rations, are being produced each year by these amateur pigkeepers, and; a good half of this goes into the pool for the general public. The rest is the reward of the pig club members, who arc allowed for their households the meat from two pigs a year, representing a 31b joint of meat each week. Workers in hundreds of war factories are finding that a pig club attached to their canteen means not only extra meat, but choice meals of pork or bacon which otherwise thev would not see. Providing the club sells half its pigs to the Ministry of Food, the remainder can be killed for consumption without affecting the canteen's normal meat allocation. Schools, hospitals, fire and' police stations are all joining in the movement to turn kitchen and garden waste into food for next winter. Parsons have organised, pigkeeping among their parishioners, and many local "pubs" have their clubs. On farms, usually far from restaurants, the workers are avoiding meatless days by making use of empty sties and other buildings. Some of the clubs are run cooperatively, the pigs being kept in u communal sty and owned jointly by the members, all of whom bear a hand in looking after :thcm and, collecting the swil'l. Others are pigowners' clubs, in Avhicli each member tends his own pigs on his own premises. "Most of the people forming clubs to-day previously knew little or nothing about keeping pigs, but all assistance and advice, as we'll as special supplementary meal allowances and insurance facilities, are provided by the Small Pig Keepers' Council, Henley-on-Thames.