What's Really in Your Pet Food?
It was the early 2000s in San Francisco. Diana and David Vogel lived in the Mission District, and a food renaissance was underway. “Everybody wanted to know where their food came from,” says David. “They wanted to know about their farmer, the sources—and we were there and wrapped up by it all.”
At the time, Diana worked as a dog walker and in a pet store, and David worked in pet food manufacturing. The couple, pet owners immersed in what Diana calls “a dog community,” started thinking: Humans wanted to know the how, why, and who behind their food, but what about what went into their pets’ meals? These questions were fueled by their first-hand understanding of the unethical aspects of pet food manufacturing, from the heinous inclusion of meats (and parts) from euthanized animals to plastic ingredients. (One recent study found high levels of potentially toxic metals in various conventional dog foods.)
Greenwashing is also ubiquitous: misleading information that tricks consumers into thinking a product is more natural, sustainable, or overall healthy than it truly is. “That was frustrating for us early on,” David says of the cryptic marketing of pet food. “You see the bag, you’re going to fill it, and you know that’s just not in there.”
So Diana and David did something radical. They began making dog food from scratch with whole, local ingredients—organic produce and humanely raised, grass-fed raw meats—right in their San Francisco apartment and selling it to the surrounding community.
That is the creation story of Diana and David’s progressive raw dog and cat food company Smallbatch, which officially launched in 2005. It started small with 15 loyal customers and is now available nationwide through direct orders and local pet shops. “The worlds of food and quality and pets just made a lot of sense,” says Diana, who constantly fields emails and calls from customers ranging from comments about how switching to pure pet food helped their pet overcome ailments to questions about hidden additives and fillers in dog food.
That transparency is key to what Diana and David do, and they advocate for it daily. The issue with pet food is multifaceted and, in many ways, parallels issues in the broken food system. Feeding pets high-quality, humanely raised meats and organic produce is critical for good health. The same goes for avoiding potentially harmful ingredients that add little to no nutritional value and only stretch a product so the company can make more profit. “Where there’s profit, there’s always compromise,” says David. “And it happens in every sector of the natural food space—and pet food has a lot of gray areas. There’s no ingredient police.”
That is why Diana and David push people to know what goes into their pet’s food—where it’s sourced and the values of the company making it. Here are some main takes on what to know and what to look out for when sourcing pet nutrition.
Knowing the story behind our animals’ food is, in many ways, activism for a more transparent food system for both humans and animals.
#1: Ask questions. Diana and David cannot stress this enough. Pick up the phone or send a cold email to a company and ask about its sourcing, practices, and values. If a company hesitates to share details, take that as a red flag. “We’ve even had store owners asking for receipts,” says Diana about their sourcing questions—which they happily hand over. “So when in doubt, trust your gut.”
#2: Look for wholesome ingredients. These include real meat that is ethically and humanely raised (not factory-farmed), organic produce (ideally), and pure, whole-derived supplements.
3#: Avoid cryptic fillers and additives. The FDA and AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) provide technical oversight of the pet food industry, but the focus is on ensuring adequate nutrition, with little to no regard for manufacturing and sourcing standards. Also, the FDA doesn’t even “get involved until something is wrong, or until something needs a recall,” says David. This leaves many gateways for adulteration and the use of cheap, unethical sources of food and additives. To avoid this, Diana and David recommend vetting ingredients and avoiding the following: factory-farmed meats, mechanically separated meat (a huge problem in the raw pet food world, says David), pink slime, animal discards, synthetic preservatives, and synthetic vitamin packs.
#4: Don’t fall for the jargon. Greenwashing is real. And it’s everywhere. This goes for pet food. Human food. Personal care items. Beauty products. Everything. So just because something is deemed organic, natural, or—in the pet food world—raw, doesn’t mean you should accept it as the most humane and healthy choice. Go deeper and ask questions about the sourcing. “Marketing is sometimes genius,” says Diana.
To learn more about Smallbatch, visit smallbatchpets.com.
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