Nick Stocker comments on Is EA sleeping on making dogs and cats vegan?

[Nick Stocker]

In the last few decades, dog food has become more plant based because plants are cheaper (and they figured out how to make it appealing to dogs and not offensive to people).

Do you have any research on the increase of plant- vs animal proteins? Trend watchers and insideres see an increase of proteins (mainly animal based).
I believe there is already value in doing this assessment for pet food market similar to The Protein Tracker.

[Denkenberger🔸]

I just have info from AI:

Era	% Plant Calories	Notes
1920s (early kibble)	10–30%	Mostly horse meat + grains; Purina starts ~1926
1950s–1970s	40–60%	Corn/​soy fillers rise for cost, extrusion tech
1980s–2000s	50–70%	Grain-heavy economy formulas dominant ​
2010s–2026	60–80%	52% of US pet foods use plant proteins by 2024; “grain-free” niche lowers some to 40% ​

[David Rich]

Unless there are links I wouldn’t take these stats as gospel