Samantha Franco
MMC2100 Provost
Lab 9
Pet food hops on the organic bandwagon
By SAMANTHA FRANCO
Fall 2010
Picking the right pet food can be difficult, but organic food is great option for keeping a happy pet healthy.
Joey is quite the gentleman. He obediently follows his woman around, respectful of her business yet mindful of her presence. He is the perfect boy.
Joey, a playful miniature Australian Shepherd, loves his owner Brooke Van Kirk, a senior at the University of Florida.
The bond between Joey and Van Kirk exemplifies a special union between man and animal. Despite this unconditional love, a lot of owners slack off on their choices of pet food.
People are constantly growing more aware about the benefits of organic food in their own diets, yet they forget to apply this new ideology to the well being of their animals.
“I never considered giving [Joey] organic food because it is expensive and I’m on a college budget,” said Van Kirk. Her dilemma is common, but there are alternatives one can take to combat the issue of money.
Susie Vought, owner of Earth Pets Organic Feed and Garden, said, “Much of the price associated with natural, organic and eco-friendly products are related to the increasing cost of packaging, shipping and retail store overhead expenses.” Due to the hiked up prices at big companies, Vought opened her store in Gainesville, Fla.
According to Vought, organic pet food is human-grade meat and vegetables grown without pesticides or antibiotics. The farms growing “organic” products must be certified. The problem is, a lot of brands don’t reveal their sources simply because the pet food industry is very much a business.
To ensure you’re getting quality products, it is imperative that you check the ingredients label on the back of the bag. The ingredients are listed by weight, which means the meat should be the first item. Vought said that although people prefer to see just chicken listed, chicken meal actually contains more protein. This is because a whole chicken is approximately 60 percent water, but chicken meal, which is actually all of the muscle meat ground up, only reduces particle size.
Although reading the bag can be a beneficial trick to discovering a healthy food brand, the slogans companies use on the front of the bags aren’t reliable for choosing a trustworthy food. A company’s focus is to lure customers into purchasing their item. According to the Association Of
American Feed Control Officials, the overseers of pet food, organic pet food is currently required to be certified under the human food regulations. The USDA National Organic Program accredits agricultural products and approves foods to display the USDA seal.
The only labels that meet regulation standards and allow a seal are “100 percent organic” and “organic.” “100 percent organic” must contain 100 percent organically produced ingredients, which is not possible in dry food since the nutrient supplements AAFCO requires are not

organically produced. “Organic” must contain 95 percent of organic ingredients and must have
“organic” listed in conjunction with each ingredient used.
For a company to claim, “made with organic ingredients,” the product must contain at least
70 percent organic ingredients and also list the organic ingredients. They cannot display an organic seal along with all of the other brands that fail to meet the standards.
Operations Manager at Gainesville’s PetSmart, Amanda Macleod, strongly recommends pet owners to purchase organic food.
“You have less trips to the vet and smaller poop,” said Macleod. According to her, organic products use less wheat in their formulas, which is easier on an animal’s stomach. In fact, a lot of dogs are allergic to wheat. Substitutes such as oatmeal and rice are also accommodated in an organic diet.
In Joey’s case, his stomach is so sensitive that he eats prescription dog food. However, to avoid a development of intolerance, his owner practices a rotational diet. A rotational diet adds some variety in a pet’s life. Instead of eating the same flavors every day, Joey alternates eating turkey or beef or lamb. This technique enriches Joey’s different amino acid intake.
Susie Vought promotes the rotational diet. Although, she said that too quick of a drastic change can cause an upset stomach. For example, if you ate salad every day for a month and then quickly transitioned to a pound of hamburger meat, your stomach would ache. Van Kirk, Joey’s owner, attributes his stomach issues to feeding him an excess amount of table scraps, a classic mistake dog owners make.
Vought also recommends a new, upcoming form of organic food: raw food. In dry food, manufacturers must add some form of binder in the formula so each kibble can take a sturdy shape. The binder normally is a grain or filler that is useless to a pet’s diet. A raw food diet, minimally cooked to increase shelf life, resembles the kind of diet a carnivore would eat in nature. Wild animals receive their starch intake from the diets of their prey. The packaged raw food mimics this concept. Vought said that in dry food, digestive enzymes are normally cooked out and then synthetically added back into the kibble. In raw food, the digestive enzymes occur naturally and work more efficiently to put less strain on the pancreas.
Organic foods provide both people and their pets a healthier lifestyle. People pamper their pets with infinite amounts of love and affection, but they don’t take the time to learn about the different products on the market. People love catering to their animals; they just deserve to be a little more educated.
“I love my Joey, he is like a child to me and I’d do anything in order to keep him safe and healthy,” said Van Kirk as she stroked her dog and welcomed a big, wet kiss.