Pet Food Politics

It takes a special brand of critter-junkie to read about pet food. As this is my third or fourth book on the subject, I'm either completely around the bend or (as I choose to believe) I have a deep and abiding interest in knowing what is going into the bodies of my furry family members.

Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, by Marion Nestle (no relation to the pet food maker) is a thorough essay on the history of the Menu Foods pet food recall that took place between March and May of 2007 when nearly 200 different brands of pet food were recalled due to the presence of melamine and cyanuric acid. For people interested in knowing how something of that magnitude could possibly happen, the book shows how unbelievably easy it was, and how difficult it may be to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Even if you aren't altogether interested in pet food, Pet Food Politics provides pause for concern regarding human food --- especially when you get to the part about how livestock raised for human consumption were fed the same pet food products that were recalled and still allowed to be processed and eaten by humans. Food for thought.