The Trump Administration has proposed cancelling new USDA Organic rules for pet food. We have until June 11 to try to change their minds.
The action would hurt the struggling organic pet food sector which, unlike the overall organic market, is in decline. Organic pet food sales hit a high of $125 million in 2015, but shrank to just $104 million in 2024.
The move wouldn't just hurt pet food producers. The new rules addressed an important concern for consumers, clarifying that meat by-products used in the production of organic pet food should exclusively come from animals that meet human-grade standards.
TAKE ACTION BY JUNE 11: Save Organic Pet Food!
We need the new organic pet food rules to keep the standards high. As the TruthAboutPetFood.com reports, “If these regulations are cut, there would be nothing in place to prevent an organic feed grade pet food from sourcing ‘substandard animal products from diseased animals, uninspected animals, condemned animals, or animals deemed unfit for human consumption.’”
Letting the rules take effect would also make it easier to find organic pet food, which has been disappearing from store shelves.
Purina recently discontinued its USDA Organic line Castor & Pollux. There’s still Tender & True, an independent brand that was the first pet food to earn the USDA Organic seal (in 2014), but it hasn't been picked up by all the retailers that used to carry Castor & Pollux.
One of the reasons the pet food market hasn’t developed is lack of regulations. If the USDA doesn’t have rules for organic pet food, they’ve got nothing to enforce when there’s fraud. That makes investing in organic certification risky. You might have to compete with fakes.
As bad as the news is for organic pet food companies and their customers, it might be organic livestock producers who are hit the hardest. Pet food is an imporant market for farmers–and an essential aspect of no-waste, whole-animal butchery. Over all, the pet food industry (both organic and non-organic) utilizes 6.4 million tons of animal by-products annually, valued at $8.5 billion. Without organic pet food, organic farmers will be cut out of this market.
TAKE ACTION BY JUNE 11: Save Organic Pet Food!