Yes, it exists - and yes, it is a big deal. Last year organic pet food sales grew three times as fast as human organic food sales [1]. How big is the market? The domestic pet food market is about $15 billion. Organic pet food is at about $14 million. So, there is a lot more room to grow.
Amazon carries a 33lb bag of Hund-n-Flocken adult dog food for $35.99. It is made of USDA choice lamb meal. Wow. How about Newman's Own Organics Senior Dog Chicken Formula, a 5lb bag for $10.79. That's pretty expensive chicken. It may all seem excessive, but, as Ann Martin and Shawn Messonnier report [2], "many ingredients [in pet food] are potentially harmful and composed of the dregs from slaughterhouses and the rendering business." You think that's bad? Apparently, "it is not uncommon for thousands of euthanized dogs and cats to be delivered to rendering plants, daily, and thrown into the rendering vat -- collars, I.D. tags, and plastic bags -- to become part of this material called "meat meal." Yikes! Likely a response to such sordid news, home-cooked pet food suddenly becomes quite reasonable.
References
[1] B. Horovitz, Organic pet food gets paws up, USA Today, 13 July 2004.
[2] A. Martin and S. Messonnier, Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts about Pet Food, NewSage Press, 2003.
Ew, I'm going to check the sites you mention and see if there are options in cat food too. I enjoy your blog, even if I don't always understand it.
Posted by: Jackie at February 2, 2005 10:46 AMJackie,
I believe www.OrganicPetProducts.com has tons of useful information about healthy pet food as well as a one-stop shopping site for the largest variety of organic pet products for dogs and cats on the web.