Browsing by Subject "vihreä kulutus"

Diet has a significant impact on the environment. 25% of Finnish household greenhouse gas emissions are due to food production and food consumption related activities. There is a continuing discussion about the environmental consequences of human nutrition, but the ecological consequences of pets are not nearly as much discussed. Pets are rarely taken into account in food consumption calculations, although they can be a big and central part of the household and its consumption. The aim of this master’s thesis is to focus on the nutrition of the second most popular pet in Finland, the cat, with an environmental perspective. This study examines the environmental impact of cat food from the perspective of the cat food industry and the consumers' choices. Important topics are the origin of food, trends in the cat food industry and consumers’ attitudes and practices. The aim is also to find ways to reduce the environmental impact of cat food. The aim of this work is to (i) examine cat food production and consumption from an environmental point of view, and (ii) examine the attitudes and customs of Finnish cat owners from the point of view of the environmental impact that concerns cat food. The goal is to get a clear picture of the different dimensions of the environmental impact of cat food. To get up-to-date information of the cat food industry, theme interviews were arranged, in April 2016, for two of the largest pet food manufacturers in Finland. In the interviews, important topics like the origin of the meat, import, food packaging and the future of the cat food industry, were brought up. The most important result was the knowledge that the cat food industry uses byproducts from the meat industry, as the animal-based ingredient of cat food. Most of the cat food consumed in Finland is produced all over Europe and domestic cat food production is very small. Cat owners' attitudes and interest in more environmentally friendly cat food and their current environmental practices were surveyed in a short online survey conducted in June-July 2018. The survey was distributed on social media, in groups focusing on cats and cat ownership. The survey gathered a total of 144 responses. The results of the survey suggest that cat owners have an interest in environmentally friendly products and also domestically produced food. However, cat owners were not ready favor environmentally friendly food if the nutritional value, taste, ingredients etc. are not at the same level as the respondent's current choice of cat food. The current practices of cat owners are rather environmentally friendly, as most of them try to recycle the food packages and take into account the amount and the recyclability of packaging materials when choosing cat food. The most important result of the whole study is that both cat owners and cat food manufacturers have a mostly positive attitude towards environmental friendliness and manufacturers in particular are aiming to become more environmentally friendly in the future. For the future, it is essential that manufacturers and cat owners interact with each other on topics about environmental issues and that more environmentally friendly alternatives are developed.