Organic Pet Food Flying off the Shelves

USA TODAY
Organic pet food gets paws up
By: Bruce Horovitz

Even Fido and Mittens are going organic.

The nation's dogs and cats are being fed record amounts of organic pet food
-- especially by singles, aging baby boomers and empty nesters looking to
spoil their pets.

Organic pet food sales, up 63% last year, are growing at nearly three times
the rate of human organic food sales, says the Organic Trade Association.

Among all organic products -- foods untouched by preservatives, pesticides,
hormones and antibiotics -- only sales of organic meats are growing faster.

At $14 million in sales last year, organic pet food remains a tiny fraction
-- 0.09% -- of domestic pet food sales of nearly $15 billion. And the U.S.
Department of Agriculture is still tailoring guidelines for organic dog
food.

That hasn't stopped the lucrative category from pushing its way onto shelves
at top natural foods retailers, including Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores.

There's serious money to be made. A bag of organic pet food often retails
for up to twice the price of conventional pet food.

That's one key reason competition is heating up. More than a dozen
companies, most of them small, now make various versions of organic pet
foods. One even makes organic bird seed.

"People want their pets to eat as well as they do," says Nell Newman,
co-founder of Newman's Own Organics and daughter of actor Paul Newman. She
grew up with five dogs and six cats.

"When I was a kid, pets died of old age," says Newman. Now, she says,
"They're dying of tumors," and she thinks food plays a role.

Newman's Own Organics recently introduced its own organic, but pricey, lines
of dog and cat food. Cost of one 25-pound bag of its 70% organic dog food:
$39.99. Meanwhile, rival Natura Pet Products makes a 95% organic brand
dubbed Karma that fetches up to $49.99 for a 15-pound bag.

"Bowser is a kid, too," explains Phillip Nabors, co-founder of Mustard Seed
Market & Cafe, a high-end grocery chain with two stores in northeast Ohio
that recently began stocking organic dog food. Nabors knows it's expensive.

"The person who buys organic pet food doesn't typically have to sift through
their Wal-Mart receipts to see if there's enough money left in their
wallet," he says.

Yet experts say there's no proof that organic pet food, at any price, can
assure any pet of a longer or healthier life.

"It probably can't hurt," says Narda Robinson, doctor of veterinary medicine
at Colorado State University. "But there's no research that shows organic
pet food is better."

Pet owners should probably first check with their veterinarians before
switching to organic food to make certain the organic food contains a
balanced diet, Robinson says.

Nancy Levine did, and her vet approved.

Now, Levine's convinced that Newman's Own Organic dog food is going to help
her 2-year-old pug, Wilson -- who already has had surgery for a liver
ailment -- live a longer, healthier life.

"I eat all sorts of foods from Newman's Own, and I trust the brand," says
Levine, who wrote and photographed the quirky dog book The Tao of Pug.
Newman's Own Organics is about the only dog food that her finicky pug has
ever shown interest in.

"If Wilson eats it and it keeps him healthy, well, that's more
cost-effective than vet bills," she says.

Levine is so sold on the Newman's Own organic dog food, she plans to plug it
in her next dog book, due this fall, about Homer, her other pug: Homer for
the Holidays.

Nell Newman loves the attention. She says she wanted to make an organic dog
food years ago, but there wasn't enough organic chicken available to do it
economically until now.

"Some of our largest (retail) customers say we'll become as big a pet food
company as we are a natural foods company," says Peter Meehan, CEO of
Newman's Own Organics.

Within two years, the company expects its organic pet food sales to top $20
million.

"It's growing as quickly as our organic pretzel sales did 10 years ago,"
says Meehan. "People want their pets to live as long as they do."

Some other pet-food makers going organic:

* Natura Pet Products. Because its new Karma line is made with 95% organic
ingredients, Natura has the only dog food line, for the moment, that carries
the U.S. Department of Agriculture certification seal on the bag.

The recipe contains 18 certified organic ingredients, the most of any dog
food. The main ingredient: organic chicken from Northern California. It's
also free-range chicken.

"It's probably healthier than what you'd get in a restaurant," says Peter
Atkins, founder of Natura Pet.

But at a cost.

"You have to have a few shekels to afford it," says Atkins, "but you don't
have to be J. Paul Getty."

Then, again, with retail prices at up to $50 for a 15-pound bag, company
executives knew not to make a 30-pound bag because it would be a very tough
sell.

"A $100 bag of dog food is a stretch," Atkins admits.

Sales are highest in the San Francisco Bay Area. Southern California is the
second-biggest market, he says.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the packaging is 100% recyclable.

* Castor & Pollux Pet Works. The Portland, Ore., pet-food maker claims to
be the first to have both organic dog and cat food on the market. Its
Organix line hit store shelves in early 2003.

Organix dog food fetches $27.99 per 15-pound bag. Organix cat food goes for
$29.99.

"Our customer is a label reader who buys organic food for the family," says
co-owner Brian Connolly.

Coming soon from the company: organic dog cookies and, for ultrafinicky
cats, organic catnip.