| I'll admit it. If there's such a thing as a Marion Nestle groupie, then I am one. I was absolutely thrilled when Alternet asked me to do an article and interview with Marion Nestle about her new book (together with Malden C. Nesheim), Feed Your Pet Right. In my article, I called it a new kind of expose, one that tells shockingly good news. More below.
UPDATE: Just a thought... I'm getting skewered in the comments over at Alternet (which I totally don't mind) but I thought an additional explanation would help clear things up. The attitude the book takes about commercial pet foods is based on the fact that no matter which complete-and-balanced food you choose, your pet will be nourished properly and won't develop a disease from nutrient deficiencies. Obviously, there's a difference between slaughterhouse waste of factory farmed animals and local, humane, ethical meat, just like there's a difference in the factory farmed meat humans eat and the stuff you get from your local farmer. And, obviously, the local, organic, humane, ethical stuff is always better. But at least, with commercial pet food, pets aren't suffering from diet-related illnesses on a massive scale, other than perhaps repercussions of eating too much and exercising too little. And a relatively ignorant pet owner won't have a hard time grabbing a bag off the shelf at the grocery store and feeding their pet a diet that won't kill them. |
| Prior to reading Feed Your Pet Right, I must admit, I had little information about the food I feed my three cats. I had read quite a bit about the rendering industry, which renders slaughterhouse waste along with euthanized pets and roadkill, and I feared that all of it went into my cats' food. Kind of like a cartoon I've seen that showed "Grade F Meat" which was labeled "Mostly circus animals, some filler." So the first bit of good news was this: Dead pets aren't fed to pets. Phew. (Dead pets are made into fertilizer. Still a gross thought but at least I'm not feeding them to my cats.)
Over the years, I've bought several kinds of food for my cats, but mostly I buy them Science Diet Hairball Formula. And I had NO idea that the company that makes it is actually Colgate-Palmolive until I read Marion Nestle's book. I don't know how I settled upon Science Diet... certainly not because I believe it's a great brand or a great food for my girls. We've tried Pet Guard, Evo, and several other varieties, but they like Science Diet best. And one of my three kitties throws up if I take her off of the hairball formula.
One thing that drove my choices, silly as it may seem, is that I was NOT about to buy the cheapest food (like Meow Mix or whatever) for my girls. I love my girls - why would I get them the cheapest stuff out there? Turns out, I was merely getting played by marketers. There's very little difference in the ingredients or quality between most "complete-and-balanced" pet foods. The difference is, pretty much, all marketing.
There are, however, a few notable exceptions. Hair ball formulas are either formulated to make the food pass through the cat quicker or they have some kind of lubricating ingredient to make everything pass through the cat easier. And it does seem that one of my cats needs this. Otherwise most of what goes down her comes up again. Not that it would go to waste - the dog would gladly eat it - but I want the cat food to feed the cat, not my boyfriend's dog.
My boyfriend, on the other hand, does buy the cheapest food for his dog. The dog's food comes in bulk, without a brand name, from god knows where. (Seriously, like a step up from a dollar store, I think.) And, as long as the dog's food is complete-and-balanced, my boyfriend is probably doing the right thing. However, there are ways to make dog food so that the dog poops less. A LOT less. Now, my boyfriend doesn't mind cleaning up his dog's poop - but I mind having it all over the yard. If I had so much money at my disposal that I could afford such a luxury, I would gladly invest in a dog food that minimizes what comes out the other end of the dog.
There was another major revelation for me in Feed Your Pet Right. Does anyone else remember Pet Promise? This brand was discontinued in the past year, but I used to buy it, alternating with Science Diet. The slogan was "Let Byproducts Be Bygones." As Nestle's book noted, that was a total myth. They still included byproducts, but they avoided using the word "byproducts" on the ingredients list because they named the specific organs included in the food.
Marketing aside, Pet Promise was actually a pretty great food. It was founded initially by ranchers who raised bison and needed a way to dispose of the parts of the animals people don't eat. After everything this book said about them, I'm still very happy that I fed it to my pets. I just wish it was still around.
Several years ago, Nestle (the company, not the author) bought Pet Promise, although you'd never know it from the Pet Promise website. That ticked me off. I would like to know where my money is going. Especially in the case of a company like Nestle, which I typically refuse to buy from. (Pet food might be an exception to that rule, because in many cases your options are buying from one nasty company or another, take your pick. And the alternatives often cost more money than I can afford.)
That brings me to the last point about pet food. So, most of it's all the same, more or less. But who you give your money to is different, depending on which brand you buy. And how much money you give. I've been giving my money to Colgate-Palmolive for the past five years. Do I want to switch my cats' food so that my money goes to Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Mars, or Del Monte instead? I don't want any of those companies to have my money!
The other alternative is making your pets' food yourself, which the book gives instructions to do. And, in an idealistic way, I'd love to do this. What a great way to give my pets local, organic, ethical food at last! Unfortunately, this is easier said than done for me. Maybe I'm being silly, but I really don't like handling meat and never have - even back when I ate it. The thought of suddenly having to purchase and deal with meat on a daily basis is really something I can't quite live with. Nor am I willing to force my cats to be vegetarians.
So for the time being, I need to figure out some way to feed them as ethically as possible that also doesn't make me go broke. I might just switch to the least expensive hairball formula out there and see how that works. At least then I'll be giving less money to nasty corporations I don't want to support. |
