WARNING: This post will include alarming information regarding federal regulations — increasing and already created at the rate of 520 EVERY DAY including Christmas in 2015. This of course, doesn’t take any state regulations into account. That’s why I urge you — if you’ve read nothing else about Next Gen — to read this post.
It impacts each of us, and will continue to impede and affect our ability to do what we do.
As your mother — and kindergarten teacher — told you many many years ago, “there IS safety in numbers.” For the first time, Next Generation Pet Food Manufacturers Association offers safety, advancement, and representation for specialty pet food manufacturers using ingredients that are nutritionally defensible. (VERY IMPORTANT to me, since as a veterinarian I treated 80% of my patients with nutrition alone.)
If you’ve not YET joined us, you still need the information I’m sharing below. If you’re already one of our proud members, pass this post on to your friends and colleagues in the industry.
Federal Regulations impacting EVERY industry — including ours— are multiplying like gremlins exposed to water. In 2015, over 190,000 new federal regulations were passed. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE THOSE PESKY STATE REGULATIONS. This is 520 federal regulations passed per day, including Christmas.
Each day, we operate upon a regulatory minefield and — until now — the only associations helping us navigate such regulations successfully has been reserved to those manufacturers with Purina-sized budgets…. leaving the rest of us:
- tiptoe-ing through the minefield without so much as a warning map;
- operating with a bullseye on our backs, without the benefit of group resources, experience and expertise;
- being bullied by huge agencies who have benefitted from our isolation;
- paying higher fees because we have NO buying power alone; and more.
THIS IS WHY WE CREATED NEXT GEN! Our members benefit from:
- Representation at AAFCO. When we show up “en masse” under the flag of an official and organized association, the powers that be will take notice. We will be there asking for ingredient definitions, and advocating for changes to ingredient definitions. We go in prepared, having gathered appropriate and compelling scientific support to bolster our requests.
- Safety in Numbers. You may be singled out by regulatory agencies — as several of our members have — but our members will never again stand alone. Using our collective resources, connections AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY experience dealing with these regulatory agencies, we will help you navigate AND FIGHT situations including — but not limited to — recall demands.
- Buying Power. As a collective group we will have more buying power — with packers, for example — than we have independently.
- Relational Equity. Our association — and each of our members — may be a bit of an outsider and may even be considered a bit of a rebel bucking the status quo. For this reason, it is even more crucial to build relationships with those people, leaders and organizations already in place. We’ll be constantly developing these relationships so we have them in place when we need them.
- Grassroots Lobbying In Congress. it was Congress who created the FDA to oversee food for public safety. We’ll be actively educating them… so they know that there are multiple ways — other than extreme rendering— to create safe pet food. With education, we’ll slowly turn the tide in our favor.
So, if these things are important to you… if you don’t want to continue to do business and navigate regulations as a “lone ranger,” join us. We’re actively setting up systems so that your membership fee can be paid in monthly installments, allowing your membership benefits to begin immediately but your payments to be spread out. We’re doing all we can to increase OUR numbers, so that YOU are BETTER represented.
If you haven’t already done so, join us. If you know another business that needs what we’re offering, send them my way.
We’re ready. We’re united. We’re determined. And we’re going to change our industry… together.
