Marketing and discourse of sustainable pet food proteins

Diversifying the proteins in petfood is a societal and technological response to climate crisis and can be
considered an alternative food movement (AFM) segment of the petfood market. This project will map the
economic and socio-cultural geographies of petfoods through a diversity of traditional and novel protein
sources, and to investigate how manufacturers and producers develop a market-niche around so-called
'alternative' petfoods to answer:
how does protein sourcing for alternative petfoods intersect with existing human food supply chains?
Which social and environmental impacts of petfood producing agro-food networks are informing
producer's decisions to create alternatives?
How do producers frame those impacts to generate consumer awareness about alternative proteins for
pets to develop a market niche?
Ethical issues relate to confidentiality and anonymity which will be addressed through data management
processes. Researcher safety issues relate to lone-working which is addressed through the School's lone worker policy