Did you know that the UK’s first dog food made from insects went on sale in January? We all love our furry animals but globally, pets consume about 20% of the world’s meat and fish, a number set to rise. Pet food is also estimated to be responsible for a quarter of the environmental impacts of meat production in terms of use of land, water, fossil fuels, phosphates and pesticides. Pet food can also contain palm oil kernels from unsustainable sources that create further deforestation and biodiversity loss.⠀
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In 2017, the global pet-food market was worth 94 billion dollars. That is a crazy amount of money for people to create better products like Yora Pet and Wild Earth Pets. ⠀
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Pet food is also nearly always packaged in plastic creating additional impact there. See if you can make your own (eggs are also a common meat substitute for dogs if you can raise your own chickens) or buy in one big bulk in something that can be recycled at your local facility. And a final reminder, #adoptdontshop.⠀
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P.S. The environmental impact of pets is known as their pawprint which unfortunately makes it sound much cuter than it is! (Okin GS 2017)
