If all the pet dogs and cats in the US formed their own country, its meat consumption would rank fifth in the world
Photo courtesy of Wild EarthWould You Feed Your Dog a Plant-Based Diet?
Meat-based pet food has a large carbon footprint. Can customers be convinced to shift dogs and cats to a diet based on plants, insects and lab-grown protein instead?
For Glenn Rankin, eating dog food is just part of a day’s work.
As managing director of British startup Yora Pet Foods for the Planet, Rankin’s job is figuring out how to lure dogs — or at least, their grocery-shopping owners — away from traditional pet fare that contains animal meat. His company’s kibble, made from black soldier fly larvae, “tastes a bit like Stilton [cheese] on biscuits.” (Gizmo, Rankin’s five-year-old labrador, who switched from chicken-based pet food to an insect-based diet in 2020, was unable to comment.)