Pet Food Politics:
The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine
by Marion Nestle
SF414 .N47 2008
New Arrivals, 2nd floor
As I was browsing the shelf to find a book to feature for New Stuff Tuesday early on Sunday afternoon, I didn’t realize that I would end up helping someone search for images of animal abuse for an assignment. However, it turns out that one could construe this week’s topic as a form of inadvertent animal cruelty.
Nestle, nutrition professor at New York University [not sure if there’s any relation to the global food conglomerate], nearly foretold a major disaster with her book about pet food, as she signed a contract to write it a month before the country’s largest consumer product recall ever hit the news. The recall, which involved dog and cat food originating from China and manufactured by a Canadian company, caused quite a stir amongst everyone, not just animal lovers. The author details the story from the nutritional perspective, as well as the political and commercial aspect, with the bureaucratic and PR nightmare that followed the scandal. If you’re researching the effects of globalization on the food supply, this is the purr-fect place to start [that one’s for you, Barb].
Hey thanks, Kyle! You’re barking up the right tree, all right.