Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, learn bog obamb Here in a new world of impossible burghers and beyond meat, where eating cicada's is considered an actual protein rich option and adopting a plant based diet can be a legitimate choice. What do we do with all those carnivores and omnivores sleeping on the backs of our sofas and chasing squirrels around our backyards?
How do we ensure that what we feed our pets is not only good for them a rich in protein and all the nutrients needed to keep them healthy, but good for our planet. To as many of us reduce our meat intake or opt for more sustainable animal proteins, could we do the same for our pets. For the article this episode is based on how Stuff Works, spoke with Greg Aldrich, a research associate professor and the coordinator of the Pet Food Program in the Department of Grain
Science and Industry at Kansas State University. He said, it's all doable. I can formulate a vegetarian diet for a dog. I can make a vegan diet for a dog. It's just a lot harder to get it all balanced and then to get them to like it. The Pet Food Institute estimates that more than a hundred and eighty million dogs and cats are living in US households, and the American Pet Products Association reports that Americans spent more than forty two billion dollars on pet foods and treats in alone,
and all of that is rough on the planet. Paper written by u c l A researcher Gregory Oakin found that American dogs and cats are responsible, through the food they eat, for the release of up to sixty four million tons of harmful greenhouse gases each year. But it's not as if we're feeding our pets big slabs of Brontosaurus ribs and live chickens. Pet foods in the US
generally have plenty of grains included. Corn is in fact the number one ingredient used overall in cat and dog foods, according to the North American Renderers Association, but most pet foods do have a huge animal component. The reason for that is simple. Dogs and cats and you and I need protein, and eating meat or meat by products is
often the best, easiest and cheapest source of protein. Aldrich said the dog is an omnivore like humans, eating both plants and animals, but their nutritional requirements are such that they're easier or better supported nutritionally if they consume animal proteins and fats at least part of their diet. And the cat we consider to be an obligate, meaning biological carnivore. So what am I talking about there? Is it just because we label them as carnivores, so thereby we have
to feed the meat. No, it really comes down to some of their nutritional requirements, the metabolic utilization of things like amino acids and fatty acids. The dogs and cats all riches, saying don't necessarily need meat itself, but they do need what's in it, and meat is easier for
them to digest. So how can we feed so many animals who biologically need meat or at least are more easily or better fed with meat when the production of that meat can be both harmful to the planet and to some, especially in the case of industrial farming, morally objectionable. It's science to the rescue. Let's talk about cell cultured meat.
Take for example, Bond Pet Foods, a pet food company in Boulder, Colorado that late announced that had produced the world's first quote animal free chicken protein to using pet foods. Bond took a blood sample from a live chicken, extracted the genetic code, then inserted it into the genetic code of some food grain yeats. These modified yeast, grown in a fermentation tank, according to Bond, Quote, churns out meat proteins that are identical to those typically produced on farm
and field. It's a similar fermentation process that's been used for half a century to make enzymes for cheese, but Bond is reassembling the process to harvest high quality animal proteins. The process produces cell cultured meat, which is basically lab manufactured meat without the need or mess of raising and killing animals on farms, and Bond is not the only
company experimenting with it. Another called Because Animals, is using a relatively similar process which harvests cells it grows them into tissue that can then be used in treats and foods for pets. A new era of pet foods made with reduced environmental impact, more sustainability, and more responsibility is hardly just around the corner, though this new way of feeding the household pet is going to take some time. The science, for as far as it's advanced, is not
quite big time yet. For one, manufacturers will have to work out the best ways to ramp up the process. Large amounts of animal based material, blood or tissue or whatever might still be needed, at least initially. Aldridge said, whether or not they have got to where they can take it to scale, so instead of making a couple of grahams making a million pounds, I don't know if they've got that all worked out. Yet another question to be answered, and not an insignificant one. Once this cultured
meat is produced, will your pets eat it? Will they like it? And furthermore, companies will have to educate the public, which may be picky about what goes into Fido's dish. They may have to overcome environmentalists and animal rights backers who may object still to the use of blood or other animal material that makes the base of the new food. They'll undoubtedly face stiff competition, as even the big pet food makers jockey for position in a market in which good,
affordable protein is increasingly difficult to come by. The new guys will have to make their product affordable. But even though this new cell cultured product might not be taking over the pet food aisle at your local big box store anytime soon. The desire for options in meat, more humane, sustainable options is clearly there. Aldrich said it could be a viable niche in the marketplace in the next five
to ten years. As long as we have what is it, a hundred and eighty million dogs and cats in the US, there's going to be demand for proteins, So any additional supply of protein is going to help. Whether or not that cell cultured meat becomes mainstream is probably going to be a ways away. Today's episode is based on the article how lab grown meat could change the pet food world on how stuff works dot com, written by John Donovan.
Brain Stuff is product of iHeart Radio in partnership with hous neffworks dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.