It had been an upbeat gathering of environmentally-minded pet-supply companies until someone asked about meat.
“What do we do about the pet industry’s participation in the meat industry,” asked Maya Fano-Carotti of the American Sustainable Business Council, “which is often very unsustainable?”
“Big question,” said Stephie Volo, the chief marketing officer for Earth Animal Ventures, “That’s a big, big question.” A question for which the sustainable sector has not yet found an answer, said Caitlyn Dudas, the executive director of the Pet Sustainability Coalition:
“I don’t have an answer to how do we solve the pet industry’s participation in the agricultural industry,” Dudas said at a meeting last week hosted by the ASBC, “but I will say that this is our number-one impact area as an organization that we’re focusing on, and it’s really exciting to be at the forefront.”
Dudas’s organization is preparing to release a model to its member animal-supply and pet-food companies, she said, to help them evaluate the sustainability of a “protein ingredient.”
“What we know is that about 25 percent of the proteins raised in the United States goes to feed pets, so that’s a big impact,” she said, “and it’s also an enormous opportunity for this industry to think really critically about the role we play in the sustainable regeneration of our farming communities and our farmlands around the United States.”
The issue involves not just the environmental impact of animal agriculture, Dudas said, but also animal welfare, worker welfare and pet nutrition.
A 2017 study put the carbon pawprint of pet food at 64 million tons of carbon-dioxide per year in the U.S. alone.
In 2019, Nicholas Carter of Sentient Media published a review of 94 studies and publications that concluded animal agriculture is responsible for at least 37 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, plus a significant share of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, and biodiversity loss.
“Protein is the biggest of all of the issues that we’re addressing,” Dudas said, one that’s surrounded by “a very kind of hot, unreliable conversation that is fueled by a lot of emotion.”
The coalition formed to project a louder voice into that conversation than any single company could.
“This is why the coalition was created,” said Spencer Williams, the CEO of West Paw, a coalition member that manufactures toys, treats and other pet supplies. “As a coalition we can drive change together and help all brands do a better and better job with big issues like protein sourcing.”
The CEO of the Nature’s Logic wasn’t shy about using the word meat or describing his company’s reliance on it.
“I will open the curtain and let you know the secret sauce that lets Nature’s Logic be 100 percent natural,” said CEO David Yaskulka. “We use more meat than our competitors. That’s why we don’t have to add synthetic vitamins at the end. So we’re a major contributor to that problem.”
Nature’s Logic has begun using seafood certified by the Maine Stewardship Council and will soon announce meats certified by the Global Animal Partnership, but most meat still derives from an industry that causes environmental degradation.
“It’s one step at a time,” Yaskulka said, “but we sure have a long way to go.”