clipped from www.naturalnews.com

Japan imports approximately 75 percent of all its animal feed, including more corn for that function than any other country. But high prices of fuel, corn and soy meal have pushed the costs of traditional feed so high that recycled feed can now be purchased for half the price. At the same time, government legislation has encouraged the development of a recycling industry and has started imposing recycling requirements on companies that throw out more than 100 metric tons of food per year.

Approximately 20 million metric tons of food go into Japan's waste stream each year, an amount five times as high as the total amount of food aid that went to the poor worldwide in 2007. The food industry is the single biggest source of this waste, in part due to health laws that require the disposal of unsold items from restaurants and convenience stores.