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sweetchastity

Monsanto in pet food?

sweetchastity
11 years ago

I just heard/learned about Monsanto today and I'm looking into it more but I was wondering if anyone has heard of any danger in pet foods regarding Monsanto. I have cats and a dog and would like to be aware of any potentially dangerous industry habits.

Comments (8)

  • jomuir
    11 years ago

    I worry a lot more about poison disguised as pet food (or pet food ingredients) coming from China than genetically modified food sources from Monsanto (assuming that's what you're referring to).

    Commercial pet food sickens & kills many many pets annually and we don't really know the extent of it yet. Recall after recall, it worries me a lot. I've changed the way I feed my pets due to contamination of pet food with unknown poisons and often consider going raw or home made pet food for my dogs. Not for my cats though as they have some special dietary needs not easily met with home cooking....

  • krycek1984
    11 years ago

    I agree with jomuir...there are more serious things to worry about in pet food than monsanto products, in my opinion...Although if it does worry you, there's not much you can do other than make your own dog food. There are no regulations concerning labeling of genetically modified food, so you have no way of knowing if the food contains GM.

  • User
    11 years ago

    I had similar concerns about the recalls and such, decided to feed our puppy Fromm's. It's a no grain high quality food with ingredients only sourced through the USA. They are a family owned business with both cat and dog food. So far my puppy has done exceptionally well with it and they've never experienced a recall.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Fromm's Family Food

  • spedigrees z4VT
    11 years ago

    I agree with krycek1984 and jomuir, and I have been home cooking for my dogs and cat since 2007.

    I'm no fan of Monsanto, to put it mildly, but I am aware that most of the meat I feed to my pets and eat myself was fed GM grain, but there is little I can do about it. I buy organic produce whenever possible because it is illegal to use GM foods in anything labelled organic, and I buy nothing with HFCS or artificial sweeteners. Monsanto's farming methods have poisoned the Mississipi river and created a dead zone in the gulf of Mexico with their toxic fertilizer, and what they have done to farmers in 3rd world countries is unconscionable. Monsanto = pure evil.

    But toxins from China are my biggest nightmare too. Manufacturers in that country are responsible for poisoning 40,000 pets here in the US and no one knows how many babies in their own country, but likely a million or more, with melamine laced baby formula. I avoid any product made with powdered or preserved milk because the bulk of it comes from China, and could be mixed with melamine scrap.

  • eahamel
    11 years ago

    Spedigrees, it isn't Monsanto that's killed the Mississippi River delta. It's all farmers up and down the river an its tributaries and watersheds. Basically it's all the farming in the center of the country. It's been going on for many decades. Monsanto isn't the only chemical company that's contributed to that, by any means. It's anyone who's farmed there since chemical fertilizers were introduced, before the dust bowl happened. But I'm with you on tho GMO's. That company has way too much power and greed.

  • spedigrees z4VT
    11 years ago

    Well you can blame a lot of forces, such as Earle Butts, the head of agriculture in this country, along with Monsanto for introducing these agricultural practices. The farmers are pretty much in a bind, since they are forced to sign contracts with Monsanto and buy GM seed from them, use toxic fertilizer, no crop rotation, just an excess of subsidized GM corn and/or soybeans year after year. Monsanto has pretty much taken over other seed cos and is currently buying up small companies that produce heirloom, non-hybrid, organic, open-pollinating seed, In other words they are swallowing up all their competition, thanks to deregulation and the destruction of anti-trust laws that prevented this sort of mass consolidation. My disgust with the corporate buyout of this country knows no bounds, but all we can do is the best we can. I grow my own heirloom veggies and save the seeds each year, and put only identifiable whole ingredients on my table and into my pets.

    The dust bowl taught farmers the importance of crop rotation, and back in the 1950s kids' text books explained this lesson, even to kids like me in non-farming communities. Sad that this lesson fell by the wayside due to the forces of unbridled greed.

  • texasredhead
    11 years ago

    If you mention any commercial pet food, 25 people will chime in as to awful X brand is. Now, for some time I have been feeding my Welsh Corgis Costco brand chicken & rice food. There are no grains in this food other than rice. 40# is in the $25.00 range.

    One of our Cardigans who lived 17 years was always feed Science Diet. A lot of these foods are rich so you need to maintain lower quantities of food for nutered and spayed dogs.

    Now, there are lots of pet and human food that says made or "packaged" in the US. Guess who grows the most rice? I just could never get myself around paying $50.00 for 10# of dog food to get some type of guarantee that every product is from the US. As I write this I'm enjoying the company of a very healthy 9 year old Pembroke and a 5 year old Cardigan, both of whom are anticipating their daily one mile walk.

  • eahamel
    11 years ago

    Texasredehad, I fee Costco (Kirkland's brand name) as well, and it's a good quality food. I have a 4 year old cardigan and he's quite a dog. We're entered in Rally at the Reliant Center show later this month.

    As for Monsanto, the problem isn't nasty chemicals as much as it's GMO grains. And as far as I'm concerned, packaged dog food causes many problems in our pets, and it isn't because of GMO grains. There is more cancer in dogs than in people these days, and many breeds don't live as long as they once died, before the introduction of dry kibble. I wouldn't worry as much about Monsanto as about grains and dry kibble in the first place.