Pet Food Sustainability Facts
Presently (2020) the human population is about 7.5 billion.
There are over one half billion domestic dogs, and just about an equal number of domestic cats; a combined total of well over one billion pets worldwide.
The environmental consequences of the worldwide agricultural industry are already being experienced: Pollution, climate change, genetic erosion of crops, water waste, natural habitat loss, and more. The world's human population is on track to grow 34%, up to 9.1 billion over the next 30 years, and it will take real innovation to address the increased food demand associated with such human population growth. The World Bank Group estimates a need for 50% more food to feed the population by the year 2050. However, and problematically, agricultural production and crop yields are actually trending in the opposite direction.
According to a study by Nature, crop yields were reduced by as much as 20% between 1964 and 2007 due to global warming.
Pets and pet food ingredients do not need to -- and should not -- drastically increase the world's agricultural burden.
Should the pet population grow in proportion to the human population that will mean nearly 2 billion domestic pets worldwide by 2050.
If the food requirements of pets are to be an additional, separate agricultural burden, then millions more tons of food would need to be produced every year to address the pet population, and concurrently millions of tons of nutritive foods wasted.
Is this a responsible or sustainable path?
Obviously not. Something has "got to give," and long before the world cannot adequately feed its human population, we need to shift pet foods away from the use of "human grade" pet food ingredients (real and purported), and toward a sustainable approach that includes environmentally-responsible foods augmented with your own food scraps (see 1 Food + You).
For more information, see Understanding Pet Food "Byproduct" Ingredients.
There are over one half billion domestic dogs, and just about an equal number of domestic cats; a combined total of well over one billion pets worldwide.
The environmental consequences of the worldwide agricultural industry are already being experienced: Pollution, climate change, genetic erosion of crops, water waste, natural habitat loss, and more. The world's human population is on track to grow 34%, up to 9.1 billion over the next 30 years, and it will take real innovation to address the increased food demand associated with such human population growth. The World Bank Group estimates a need for 50% more food to feed the population by the year 2050. However, and problematically, agricultural production and crop yields are actually trending in the opposite direction.
According to a study by Nature, crop yields were reduced by as much as 20% between 1964 and 2007 due to global warming.
Pets and pet food ingredients do not need to -- and should not -- drastically increase the world's agricultural burden.
Should the pet population grow in proportion to the human population that will mean nearly 2 billion domestic pets worldwide by 2050.
If the food requirements of pets are to be an additional, separate agricultural burden, then millions more tons of food would need to be produced every year to address the pet population, and concurrently millions of tons of nutritive foods wasted.
Is this a responsible or sustainable path?
Obviously not. Something has "got to give," and long before the world cannot adequately feed its human population, we need to shift pet foods away from the use of "human grade" pet food ingredients (real and purported), and toward a sustainable approach that includes environmentally-responsible foods augmented with your own food scraps (see 1 Food + You).
For more information, see Understanding Pet Food "Byproduct" Ingredients.