What goes into animal feed?
As well as dioxin, excrement and their aunts and uncles (all sources of recent food scares), livestock are fed a carefully regulated diet, depending on the kind of animal, breed, age and function. Feed is split broadly into two types, for monogastrics (for animals with one stomach such as pigs and poultry) and ruminants (for animals with more than one stomach such as sheep and cattle). While it is possible to produce ruminant feed without using soya or maize, it is apparently impossible to raise pigs and poultry to the standards demanded by supermarkets and consumers on a soya-free diet [12]. Feed mixtures typically include protein concentrates from fishmeal or soya bean and additives – vitamins, trace minerals, food colourings and antibiotics [10].
