Dog Food
According to ScienceNews, Dry pet may be more environmentally friendly than wet food by Meghan Rosen. A Veterinary nutritionist for the University at Sao Paulo, Brazil, analyzed over 900 hundred pet diets and was able to ascertain that caloric intake from wet food was approximately double that of dry food. Factoring in the type of pet, the cost of food, and environmental factors. “The findings, described November 17 in Scientific Reports, suggest that wet food production uses more land and water and emits more greenhouse gasses than dry food.” The article goes on to state typical cat and dog food is not made from prime cut meat, but rather animal byproducts (things humans usually do not eat). Due to the nature of the meat by-products, how to measure the carbon output is an ongoing debate. According to Gregory Okin, an environmental scientist at the University of California. “There is much debate, and on the specifics of what the wet food contains and the degree it will affect the atmosphere, but clearly dry food is healthier for the environment.” He goes on to say it would be advantageous to have this information on the labels, so that an educated consumer can make an informed decision, not only on what they are feeding their pets, but how it is affecting the planet.
According to one citation it is the human consumption of food that is the biggest culprit harming the environment, cutting down forests so cows and other animals can be raised. Reported in Nature Food in March 2021, the article goes on to state that split food system emissions into four categories: land (including both agriculture and related land use changes), energy (used for producing, processing, packaging and transporting goods), industry (including the production of chemicals used in farming and materials used to package food) and waste (from unused food).I realized that every major category pertaining to feeding those on the planet are important while trying to preserve the earth and her integrity. Our pets and their diets may represent only a small portion of this equation, but still, it is an important variable. Wet food diets for pets were responsible for the highest impact, and dry diets were the type of diet that least impacted the environment. It does have a significant impact particularly since the population of pets is growing.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2022 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
