Is local hero?
Already for quite some years I propagate the use of local ingredients in pet food. My thinking is simplistic: if a country can feed its people, why can’t it feed its pets? If we assume that under normal circumstances proteins, fats and carbohydrates are available to feed a country’s population, cannot these same proteins, fats and carbo-hydrates be used to make pet food that fits the bill? Obviously, defining “the bill” will be a matter for hot debate.
Yesterday I read an article in my daily newspaper that I saw as an answer to my question. Or is it my plea?
Because of the war in Ukraine there is a shortage of wheat. And the emblematic French baguette is made of … wheat. Senegal used to be a French colony and the baguette is one of the types of bread that is very much liked there. It is a tradition that was created some 3.000 kms away; in France where wheat was abundantly available. But the shortage of wheat and its inherent price-explosion made the consumer-price of the end-product in Senegal unaffordable for all but a few.
And then somebody said: “we have carbo-hydrates of our own!” “What can we do with these if we want to bake baguettes?” And it turned out that a grain called fonio (digitaria exilis) was very suitable to be used for baking baguettes; not an exact copy of the French one, but still. And nutritionally at least as adequate. This fonio grows in the poor east of Senegal; if the use of fonio for making baguettes becomes more popular there is a clear incentive to increase the fonio-crops. Maybe this is a win-win-win situation: affordable baguettes are there, the poor east of the country can become more prosperous and the dependency on foreign imports of wheat lessens.
And I do see a parallel with pet food; particularly the dry variety. Developed maybe already a century ago in the mid-West of the USA, where wheat, corn and beef were available. Probably abundantly. And these were used for pet food. Because it was local and (therefore?) cheap. After WWII industrially prepared pet food slowly started to make some inroads into feeding-regimes for pets and production started in countries outside of the USA. Particularly in Europe. And guess what: because the American products set the example – they were seen as the norm – the European manufacturers made pet foods based on wheat, corn and beef. Whereas in most of these European countries the main source of animal proteins then was pork. There are umpteen examples of regions mimicking US pet foods without having the ingredients available. These had to be imported.
If we believe that after the perfect storm(war in Ukraine, pandemic and inflation) things will go back to normal, the above is just a reflection on history and of no relevance for the future.
If however we believe that we are going through a period of transition, we must recognise and take into account that this transition includes our industry. And making local the hero could be part of that recognition!
P.S. In the meantime Senegal has started to grow other more heat resistant wheat varieties in other parts of the country; first experiences look promising.