Since imitation is indeed the best form of flattery, our association was VERY flattered to learn that MARS (yes, THAT one, the one with $45 billion in annual sales) has partnered with Big Ideas Ventures to launch their OWN “Next Gen Pet Food Innovation Program.”
No, I’m not joking. But in the pet food industry, when MARS swipes your name, I guess you ARE making the waves you intended on making! We began this little venture together in 2016. We went nearly 8 years without being copied.
Aside from “flattering” us, what is “Next Gen Pet Food Innovation Program” designed to do? According to their website, “to support pathways to reducing carbon emissions in pet food production.” Additionally, they want to work on “groundbreaking sustainable innovations which can be applied to pet food.”
Sustainable pet food. Sustainable USUALLY means recycled trash. Here are some other words littering their site:
- novel ingredients with “sustainable credentials.”
- up-cycling food waste
- innovative extraction methods.
Mars is the candy bar company. The other company proudly named in this new Next Gen Pet Food project is Bühler. I wasn’t familiar with them, so I looked them up. They make highly extruded highly refined “food-stuff”. (BTW: Other “extruded” products include plastics and styrofoam.)
Obviously, we represent fresh food. Real food. They swiped our name, which they obviously deemed good enough to steal, but our food versus theirs isn’t even comparable. Any manufacturer with the sense to know the difference between highly extruded recycled waste product being put forth as sustainable versus real food, knows where to come for membership and representation.
