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The first month of the year is often rife with resolutions. This year, among the usual suspects is a rising commitment to sustainability across every aspect of our lives — from the way we travel to the we eat.
Now, the sustainable effort is extending to our pets. At the forefront of the movement is Diana Scott, the founder of premium pet food brand Frontier Pets. “I set out to find a free-range and organic dog food for my dogs, and when I couldn’t find one, I made one,” she says.
Scott worked with animal nutritionist Dr. Kathy Cornack to design a range of ethical, raw food for dogs, with the aim of ending factory farming in Australia.
“Ending factory farming and transitioning to regenerative farming practices can sequester greenhouse gas, improve animal welfare, and improve the quality of the produce,” she explains. “It’s up to every individual to vote with their wallet for the kind of world we want to live in.”
Below, Scott talks ethical farming, sustainable produce, and how to choose the best pet food for both your dog and the planet.
Frontier Pets Founder, Diana Scott (left)
How did you connect with ethical farmers?
Armed with Dr. Kathy Cornack’s recipe (that includes free-range meat and offal, free-range eggs and organic fruit and vegetables), I travelled around Australia to personally meet with farmers. During what was the absolute best trip of my life, I met with farmers who were able to demonstrate that they did indeed practice sustainable agriculture and that they were willing to supply produce to us. Over time this list has grown, but always with the guarantee that the suppliers meet with our ethical standards.
How do you support ethical farming practices?
Frontier Pets is 100 per cent Australian made, owned and sourced. That means every ingredient that goes into the recipe is sourced from free-range beef, chicken and pork farmers, free-range egg producers, and certified organic fruit and vegetable producers. Our community has circulated over $5 million into Aussie farmers practicing sustainable agriculture, and it’s growing with each purchase our customers make.
What’s the biggest concern in the pet food industry?
The sad fact is 500 million animals are caged in factory farms in Australia today, while factory farming is increasing land clearing and deforestation to grow grain to feed the cattle. This is a one-way highway to destruction.
The true cost of factory farming is best described in Farmageddon by Philip Lymbery, the CEO of Compassion in World Farming. In his book, Lymbery argues that farm animals eat more than a third of the world’s arable harvests, and they waste most of it as faeces and heat. If the aim is to improve nutrition for people and pets – the fewer factory farms, the better.
A traditional regenerative free-range system where pigs and chickens live on pastures, snuffle up leftovers and forage, and their faeces acts as a natural fertiliser for healthier soil, is better for our health and the health of our pets and the planet.
How is Frontier Pets providing a solution?
Our pets are the second largest consumers of farmed animals on the planet, after humans. This equates to billions of tonnes of factory farmed produce. Frontier Pets food is made from ingredients sourced from producers practicing sustainable agriculture.
There are millions of people making better choices about the food that they eat, but not necessarily making that choice for their pets. Now, everyone has the opportunity to make these same ethical choices for their pets.
What are the nutritional benefits for our dogs?
The health impact of fresh whole foods is enormous, and one of the best ways to ensure that your dog is going to be as healthy as possible. Frontier Pets contains all the nutritional advantages of raw feeding, without the work.
It’s a balanced raw food diet that contains superior ingredients that’s then freeze dried — a process that extracts the water from the raw ingredients whilst keeping the nutritional integrity intact. The dry product is kept in the cupboard, and when you’re ready to feed, you just add warm water to the dry ingredients and it reconstitutes to its original raw form. Your pet is getting a healthy, warm meal every time you serve it.
Brought to you by Frontier Pets.
