If American dogs and cats were their own country, the U. S. would be a country. UU. de Fido and Fluffy would rank fifth in world meat consumption. Given the disproportionate effect of meat production on global warming: animal agriculture accounts for 14. 5% of total greenhouse fuel emissions: puppy ownership deserves to be classified among transcontinental flights in non-climatic terms. (A 2020 study from the University of Edinburgh places the puppy food industry just behind the Philippines in total emissions. )published today in Scientific Reports offers an option for climate-conscious guardians. It turns out that the type of food, rainy or dry, has a significant effect on puppy food emissions.
In their paper, “Environmental Impact of Dog and Cat Diets,” an organization of researchers from the University of Sao Paulo assessed greenhouse fuel emissions from other dog and cat diets in Brazil, which is just a moment for the United States when it comes to dogs. property. and the fourth worldwide for cats. They also included land and water use in their survey on advertising dry food diets, rain food products, and homemade puppy foods, taking into account the nutritional and caloric values of other diets.
Wet food has the greatest effect on the environment, contributing up to seven times more carbon emissions than dry kibble or cookie nutrition. The authors estimate that a dog of average size of 22 pounds (10 kg) be guilty of 6,541 kilograms of CO2 consistent with the year, the equivalent of 13. 5 round-trip flights to Europe. A dry diet for the same dog would emit 828. 37 kilograms of CO2, or about 1. 7 European getaways. And that’s without considering transportation and packaging, which would likely have an added effect given the higher weight and life cycle of aluminum cans that typically contain rain food compared to bags in which dry food is usually shipped.
But not all kibble is equivalent from a climatic point of view. A University of Edinburgh study on the carbon footprint of puppy food estimates that meat-based dry foods contribute up to 2. 9% to CO2 emissions from agriculture. While dogs, which are omnivores, can on a plant-based diet, cats want animal protein. To satisfy this desire, puppy food companies, adding big ones like Mars and Purina, have developed insect-based protein-rich foods for dogs and cats. In the United States, puppy food startup Jiminy’s sells a cricket kibble and a worm-based edition called Good Grub. It’s possible that real guilt-free meat will soon be in dinner bowls: a U. S. -based biotech company is in the U. S. to make treats for freeze-dried puppies.
That said, the environmental costs of shipping will still be a vital consideration. The bottom line: Whether it’s cricket food today or mice bred in the near future, the key to a climate-friendly puppy food is to make sure it stays in kibble form. .