Starting a charity to accelerate plantbased proteins in pet food industry. 9 years experience in semiconductor industry, last role as sustainability program manager. Interested in climate action, biodiversity and animal welfare.
Strongly agree and can personally relate to this post. A principle in marketing that always stood out for me is "You are not your audience", which imo summarizes this post perfectly. There is so much growth potential for this community if we apply that principle more often.
In the last few decades, dog food has become more plant based because plants are cheaper (and they figured out how to make it appealing to dogs and not offensive to people).
Do you have any research on the increase of plant- vs animal proteins? Trend watchers and insideres see an increase of proteins (mainly animal based). I believe there is already value in doing this assessment for pet food market similar to The Protein Tracker.
First of all thanks @Alistair Stewart for bringing this subject and research to the EA Forum and interesting discussion above. Over the past few months I dug into this cause area and talked to dozens of experts (NL and EU). In summary my conclusion is yes EA should spend more resources on this cause area. In summary:
Scale; medium-high, not huge, pet food is growing (& humanization), fish and insects often neglected
Neglectedness: high, animal welfare standards lacking, estimated market share animal-free products 1%-3% in The Netherlands.
Tractability, very high, adult dogs can thrive on a plant-based diet, more (long-term clinical) research needed for puppies and cats.
The scale is very large, yet probably not as high as mentioned in some articles, as @Ben Stevenson also pointed out. The pet food market expected to grow more than 5% CAGR during 2025-2032 as economy grows and human birth rates decline. In China the pet food industry is growing even more rapidly. Next to this, there is a clear trend of humanization of pets. In which we only want ‘the best’ for our companion animals and are willing to pay premium, which results in high quality human-grade meat (non by-product) and following the protein hypes, increasing demand.
There is limited mentioning here in the comments for fish and insects. Research estimated that the average household cat in Australia eats more fish than the average Australian citizen. Again these numbers can be on the high end, yet it’s evident that the cat food industry drives demand for fish. Especially considering that bycatch is often not deemed suitable for humane consumption ends up in pet food, leaving little incentive for fisheries to improve their methods.
As the insect market is declining for human food due to limited economic viability. However, the insect industry larger customers are mostly in the (pet) animal feed industry. Given that animal welfare is an EA cause area there is a strong link with pet food as well. As insect proteins are considered as a reliable protein ingredient for primarily veterinarian diets.
High level of neglectedness, pet guardians are unaware of the ecological and animal welfare footprint of their companion animals and meat is considered the norm. There is little knowledge among pet guardians on animal-free alternatives and misconceptions on health implications.
In terms of animal welfare standards, I have talked to several (European) animal welfare organizations and none of them had pet food in their (current) scope. Walk into a regular petfood store and check the packaging for any mentionings of animal welfare standards and you will notice that these are missing. The supply chain of ingredients is not transparent as some already pointed out the pet food is based mainly on animal by-products and controlling institutions have already limited bandwidth to monitor human food industry for welfare standards. I believe it can already be a quick win by targeting the largest pet food brands and drive for improved welfare standards. Recently the French organization L214 issued a campaign against Hill’s on their broiler chicken standards.
Tractable, balanced healthy plant-based alternatives are available for adult dogs and both clinical research, as large pet guardian population surveys have shown that these are considered healthy. However, I don’t think it’s realistic that dogs and cats will move quicker to a solely animal-free diet than humans. Therefore I would argue for a flexitarian strategy reducing animal-based proteins as much as possible. As @Denkenberger🔸 also pointed out most pets eat the same food every day.
In line with @George Bridgewater's 2nd strategy to discuss with major a shift to more plant-based proteins in pet food formulation, I'm in the middle of starting an NGO that applies this theory of change and accelerates alternatives.
If you want to contribute to accelerating alt proteins in pet food feel free to reach out. Currently mainly focused in The Netherlands and Belgium.
This is an interesting point indeed. The first question we received from a VP-level when announcing our first event was: 'are you affiliated/aware of SBF fraudulent scheme?'. We reached out to him to hear his concerns and ensured we are aware and condemned SBF's actions and are not affiliated.
Next to that, to my observations, the perceived negative buzz around EA is mostly coming from people who are already familiar and monitor EA activities for a longer period. Within the Netherlands, where the HQ is located, the 'EA movement' is probably less known.
The principles of EA 'to find the most effective ways to help others' are the cornerstone of the activities hosted. Focusing primarily on improving effectiveness of the gift matching program by spotlighting effective organizations and inspiring colleagues to donate more. Connecting the heart and brain resonated well for the primarily engineer community. We encouraged speakers to keep complex methodologies, graphs, and tables in their presentation as it increased their credibility. Hope this helps.
Strongly agree and can personally relate to this post. A principle in marketing that always stood out for me is "You are not your audience", which imo summarizes this post perfectly. There is so much growth potential for this community if we apply that principle more often.
Thank you for kind words, highly appreciate this! For those curious feel free to reach out for any questions or sparring.
Do you have any research on the increase of plant- vs animal proteins? Trend watchers and insideres see an increase of proteins (mainly animal based).
I believe there is already value in doing this assessment for pet food market similar to The Protein Tracker.
First of all thanks @Alistair Stewart for bringing this subject and research to the EA Forum and interesting discussion above. Over the past few months I dug into this cause area and talked to dozens of experts (NL and EU). In summary my conclusion is yes EA should spend more resources on this cause area. In summary:
The scale is very large, yet probably not as high as mentioned in some articles, as @Ben Stevenson also pointed out. The pet food market expected to grow more than 5% CAGR during 2025-2032 as economy grows and human birth rates decline. In China the pet food industry is growing even more rapidly. Next to this, there is a clear trend of humanization of pets. In which we only want ‘the best’ for our companion animals and are willing to pay premium, which results in high quality human-grade meat (non by-product) and following the protein hypes, increasing demand.
There is limited mentioning here in the comments for fish and insects. Research estimated that the average household cat in Australia eats more fish than the average Australian citizen. Again these numbers can be on the high end, yet it’s evident that the cat food industry drives demand for fish. Especially considering that bycatch is often not deemed suitable for humane consumption ends up in pet food, leaving little incentive for fisheries to improve their methods.
As the insect market is declining for human food due to limited economic viability. However, the insect industry larger customers are mostly in the (pet) animal feed industry. Given that animal welfare is an EA cause area there is a strong link with pet food as well. As insect proteins are considered as a reliable protein ingredient for primarily veterinarian diets.
High level of neglectedness, pet guardians are unaware of the ecological and animal welfare footprint of their companion animals and meat is considered the norm. There is little knowledge among pet guardians on animal-free alternatives and misconceptions on health implications.
In terms of animal welfare standards, I have talked to several (European) animal welfare organizations and none of them had pet food in their (current) scope. Walk into a regular petfood store and check the packaging for any mentionings of animal welfare standards and you will notice that these are missing. The supply chain of ingredients is not transparent as some already pointed out the pet food is based mainly on animal by-products and controlling institutions have already limited bandwidth to monitor human food industry for welfare standards. I believe it can already be a quick win by targeting the largest pet food brands and drive for improved welfare standards. Recently the French organization L214 issued a campaign against Hill’s on their broiler chicken standards.
Tractable, balanced healthy plant-based alternatives are available for adult dogs and both clinical research, as large pet guardian population surveys have shown that these are considered healthy. However, I don’t think it’s realistic that dogs and cats will move quicker to a solely animal-free diet than humans. Therefore I would argue for a flexitarian strategy reducing animal-based proteins as much as possible. As @Denkenberger🔸 also pointed out most pets eat the same food every day.
Lastly, I would like to bring @Karthik Sekar’s previous EA Forum discussion on this subject to everyone’s attention where several promising pathways for cats are summarized: Getting Cats Vegan is Possible and Imperative — EA Forum
In line with @George Bridgewater's 2nd strategy to discuss with major a shift to more plant-based proteins in pet food formulation, I'm in the middle of starting an NGO that applies this theory of change and accelerates alternatives.
If you want to contribute to accelerating alt proteins in pet food feel free to reach out. Currently mainly focused in The Netherlands and Belgium.
This is an interesting point indeed. The first question we received from a VP-level when announcing our first event was: 'are you affiliated/aware of SBF fraudulent scheme?'. We reached out to him to hear his concerns and ensured we are aware and condemned SBF's actions and are not affiliated.
Next to that, to my observations, the perceived negative buzz around EA is mostly coming from people who are already familiar and monitor EA activities for a longer period. Within the Netherlands, where the HQ is located, the 'EA movement' is probably less known.
The principles of EA 'to find the most effective ways to help others' are the cornerstone of the activities hosted. Focusing primarily on improving effectiveness of the gift matching program by spotlighting effective organizations and inspiring colleagues to donate more. Connecting the heart and brain resonated well for the primarily engineer community. We encouraged speakers to keep complex methodologies, graphs, and tables in their presentation as it increased their credibility. Hope this helps.