To most people, the concept of prepared pet
food makes perfect sense and they don’t question it for
a second. Pets eat pet food and people eat people food. Well,
that wasn’t
always the case. In truth, extruded pet food pellets as we
know them today aren’t quite 50 years old.
Before the
advent of pet foods, most dogs and cats lived off of grains,
meats, table scraps and homemade food from their
owners. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that the
world saw its first food made specifically for dogs. An American
electrician, James Spratt concocted the first dog treat. Living
in London at the time, he witnessed dogs around a ship yard
eating scraps of discarded biscuits. A light bulb went off
in his head and shortly thereafter he introduced his dog food,
made up of wheat meals, vegetables and meat. His company flourished
and by 1890 he was taken over by a large corporation and production
had begun in the United States as well.
But it wasn’t
until the early 1900’s that pet food
really caught on. Canned horse meat was introduced in the United
States under the Ken-L-Ration brand after WWI as a means to
dispose of deceased horses. The 1930’s saw the introduction
of canned cat food and dry meat-meal dog food by the Gaines
Food Co. During WWII metal used for cans was set aside for
the war effort, which nearly ruined the canned pet food industry.
But by the time WWII ended, pet food was off and running again,
and sales had reached $200 million. For companies such as Nabisco,
Quaker Oats, and General Foods, pet food represented an opportunity
to market by-products as a profitable source of income. The
number one benefit was convenience, and with the economy booming,
people could now afford the luxury of pet food. At first, canned
pet food was the primary type sold, but by 1956 the first extruded
pet foods were hitting store shelves. Extrusion is the process
by which pet foods are formed into pellets, and then sprayed
with synthetic nutrients to compensate for nutrition lost during
processing.
Success continued throughout the 60’s
and 70’s
as companies began to diversify flavors and refine the extrusion
technology. The 80’s saw the introduction of ailment-specific
diets such as those offered by Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
Around the same time, our company was first established. In
1985 Sojourner Farms was launched as an attempt to set aside
technology and simplify pet food to resemble simple, real food
like those which humans eat (in addition to our all
natural dog treats). Since then, many “innovations” have
been introduced by other companies including natural
pet foods,
semi-moist, vacuum-packed, frozen, freeze-dried, and breed-specific
pet
foods. The pet
food industry has grown to $15 billion in annual sales, dominated
by multi-national corporations such as Heinz and Nestle. Ironically,
as a result of dog health problems we’re now seeing a
trend toward natural, holistic, raw, and yes, homemade, human-quality
pet foods – not
too different from the type of foods folks fed their pets before
pet food ever existed.
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Sojourner Farms. All rights reserved.
