Retail surplus produce can be re-routed from disposal into circular food-system uses, yet on-farm performance, health safeguards, and economics remain under-documented for small mixed-species operations. This report describes a case study from British Columbia in which a regional retail surplus food recovery network (RSFRN) coordinated weekly collections of unsold produce for a farm with chickens, ducks, geese, goats and pigs. Across observed weeks, donations were triaged into three streams: feed directly to animals, freeze-dry, or compost due to spoilage. Poultry acceptance was highest for leafy greens; pigs received mixed rations with cooked roots and almost entirely subsisted on donations; goats and waterfowl preferentially consumed greens and fruits. No losses were attributed to donated feed; several sour-crop cases underscored the need for rigorous sorting and cold-chain. A simple logistics model showed depackaging and sorting labor dominated weekly costs, while freeze-drying could stabilise the fractions over longer term for additional value. Situating these findings within circular-feed theory, RSFRNs can deliver environmental and economic value in practice—but only when upstream quality, predictable volumes, and basic stabilization are in place. An outline of design targets are provided (retailer pre-sort standards, minimal depackaging infrastructure, matched stabilization pathways) to convert a useful yet fragile loop into a durable component of circular, low-waste livestock feeding.
Levente L. Orbán (Mon,) studied this question.