§ 47. Mr. R. Bellasked the Minister of Agriculture if he will reconsider his Department's request made to certain other Departments to effect the termination of their contracts for collection of pigswill by farmers licensed as processors since before 1945.
§ Mr. NugentNo, Sir. In the interests of animal health, swill from canteens and messes controlled by Government Departments is, whenever possible, centrally sterilised before being taken on to farms; and the results justify a continuation of this arrangement.
§ Mr. R. BellInstead of concentrating on animal swill, will my hon. Friend concentrate on starlings, and does he realise that great hardship is being caused to individual pig breeders by this recent withdrawal of their basic supplies?
§ Mr. NugentI cannot accept that great hardship is being caused. Where a contract for the collection of swill is cut down, or the swill goes to a central processing plant, arrangements are made for the previous collector to get an equivalent quantity of processed swill.