20th Dec 2008

Sourcing of Pet Food Ingredients

Food ingredients:
I know that most organic (even human-grade) food ingredients are imported to the US but not many pet food manufacturers will tell you that. Although I did not yet hear that any organic ingredient from China was tainted, I am not sure how good the oversight over organic farming is in this country. However, there is certainly a lot of energy wasted transporting these foods, which could easily be grown here, to the USA.

Supplements:
Aside from ”obvious” tainted or even toxic (e.g., ”high-protein” gluten, cyanuric acid in wheat flour) pet food ingredients, China probably supplies almost all (or all?) of the ”supplements” which many pet food manufacturers add to their pet foods. I have seen pure ”pharmaceutical-grade” chemicals sold for research purposes that are ”Made in China” (printed in very, very small font on the vial).

This supplementation of pet foods is required by law to be able to market pet foods ”nutritionally balanced” or ”complete” (these are the foods with the desired AAFCO statement on the package), but it is actually necessary to provide at least some nutrients to devitalized over-processed pet foods. However, how many undetectable or still undetected toxins does supplementation with low-quality vitamin and mineral preparations add to already mostly questionable ingredients?

What I”d like:
1) More sincere support for organic agriculture in the US. This which would decrease pollution, waste of natural resources (e.g., petroleum-based agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers, water), enhance health, provide local jobs.

2) Meaningful regulations and more oversight in the US pet food industry. E.g., only certified organic claims are currently regulated by the US government, all other organic claims aren”t and need not be verified, so with non-certified organic pet foods, you never know if you get organic when you buy organic.

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