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Lauren vogel bomb here in a new world of impossible burgers and beyond meat. Where eating cicadas 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 new to keep them healthy but good for our planet to ask many of us reduce our meat intake or opt for more sustainable animal proteins. Could we do the same for pets for the article. This episode is based on how stuff works. Spoke with greg aldrich a research associate professor in the coordinator of the pet food program 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 one 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 twenty twenty alone and all of that is rough on the planet a twenty seventeen paper written by ucla researcher. Gregory oaken 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 year. But it's not as if we're feeding our pets big slabs of brontosaurus sorace 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 relation 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. I and cheapest source of protein. Aldridge 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 supportive nutritionally 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 them meet. No it really comes down. To some of their nutritional requirements the metabolic utilization of things like amino acids and fatty acids a dogs and cats aldrich's saying don't necessarily need meat itself. But they do need what's in it and me 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 arming morally. Objectionable it's science to the rescue. Let's talk about cell cultured meat. A take for example bond pet foods a pet food company in boulder colorado that late in two thousand twenty announced that in produced the world's first quote animal free chicken protein to us in pet foods. Bond took a blood sample from a live. chicken extracted. the genetic code then inserted it a code of some food grain yeast these modified used 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 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 another called because animals is using a relatively similar process which harvests cells and gross them into tissue. The can then be used in treats and food 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 its vanished 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 and blood or tissue or whatever it might still be needed at least initially aldridge said. Oh whether or not they've got to where they can take to scale so instead of making a couple of grams 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 news l. cultured product might not be taking over the pet food aisle at your local big box store anytime soon. The desire for options in meet more humane sustainable options is clearly there. Aldridge said it could be a viable niche in the marketplace in the next five ten years as long as we have what is it one 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..