Sustainability matters — for our planet and for the pets we love. Dogs and cats in the U.S. eat billions of pounds of traditional animal protein every year, and that diet has a surprisingly large environmental footprint.
In this video, we break down why insect protein is the game-changer in sustainable pet food. Founder & CEO Anne Carlson explains how using insects like crickets and grubs dramatically reduces land and water use, cuts greenhouse gas emissions, and still delivers complete, nutrient-dense nutrition for dogs. You’ll learn how insects can help reduce your dog’s carbon pawprint while supporting healthier, more planet-friendly diets. Let’s dive into how insects are reshaping sustainability in pet food — and what that means for your pup and the planet.
If you'd rather read, here's the transcript for this video:
Let’s talk sustainability!
The first question you might be wondering is why does sustainability matter for our pets? Well, According to a UCLA study 25-30% of the environmental impact of meat consumption in the US is due to our dogs and cats.
In fact, if the 163 million dogs and cats in the US had their own country – they’d rank 5th in global meat consumption!
Our dogs alone are eating over 32 billion pounds of protein per year and most of it is coming from traditional animal agriculture – absolutely not sustainable - we’re going to change that!
So, at Jiminy’s we make sustainable dog food using insect protein. The philosophy that guided our product roadmap has been to develop complementary products that address our consumer’s needs throughout all parts of the day – We want our consumers to have a nutritious and sustainable choice for products that they feel are essential for their pup!
Our products are delicious, nutritious, sustainable, humane and Hypoallergenic!
In this video I’m going to dive deep into the sustainability (because that’s what got us started in the first place)
Jiminy’s products are truly sustainable – they use exponentially less land, water and emit almost no greenhouse gases. Let’s break it down.
If you’ve got one acre of land and you put chickens on it, at the end of a year you’ll have 265 pounds of protein. But if you put crickets on that acre you’ll have 65,000 pounds of protein and if you raise grubs you’d have over a million pounds of protein at the end of the year!!
This is possible for a number of reasons – short lifecycle so you’re raising lots of generations over the course of a year. They reproduce at a high rate and they’re a naturally swarming species so they prefer to live together in close quarters. They’re grown indoors, so you can go vertical. This also means there is no ground water runoff polluting nearby water.
It also utilizes much less water. They get a lot of the water that they need from their food.
And then almost no greenhouse gases. 65% of nitrous oxide comes from animal agriculture – nitrous oxide has a global warming potential that is 296x greater than CO2 emissions (10x more than methane). Insect protein is so different here - Bugs don’t burp or pass gas…so a minimal amount of greenhouse gases generated when raising this protein source.
Insects have high feed conversion efficiencies. Feed conversion measures the efficiency with which the bodies of livestock convert feed into protein (the desired output). Insects are cold blooded and therefore when they eat the the food goes towards growth as opposed to heating their body.
Even the insect’s Frass has benefits. You can think of FRASS as the insect equivalent to manure. It’s a fantastic fertilizer – one of the things that I love about it is that it makes plants stronger. The plants detect the exoskeletons in the ground around them and prepare for defense. As a result they grow Thicker stalks, more flowers and fruit.
This is a rich subject. To recap, I think the most important points to remember are the ones we started with – Less land, less water, & fewer greenhouse gasses. I went into details because the details help explain why these three things are possible.
Less land, less water, & fewer greenhouse gasses.
Thank you for choosing Jiminy’s and helping us to reduce our dogs' carbon pawprints! 
FAQ
1. What is insect protein and why is it sustainable for pet food?
Insect protein comes from insects like crickets and grubs (black soldier fly larvae). It’s considered sustainable because insect farming uses far less land, water, and resources than livestock and produces much lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with beef, chicken, or pork protein.
2. How does insect protein reduce environmental impact compared to traditional animal proteins?
Insects require far less land and water to produce the same amount of protein, and they emit fewer greenhouse gases during growth. This makes insect protein a more eco-efficient source of nutrition for pets than conventional livestock proteins.
3. What specific environmental benefits does insect protein offer?
Insect protein offers benefits such as:
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Lower water use and reduced feed inputs
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Minimal greenhouse gas emissions
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Efficient feed-to-protein conversion
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Potential upcycling of organic waste into nutrient-rich biomass
These factors contribute to a smaller overall carbon footprint for pet food.
4. Can insect protein still provide complete nutrition for dogs?
Yes. Insect proteins are rich in high-quality protein, essential amino acids, healthy fats, and micronutrients — making them nutritionally comparable to traditional animal proteins used in pet foods.
5. Does insect farming produce fewer greenhouse gases than livestock farming?
Yes — because insects are cold-blooded, they convert feed into protein more efficiently and emit significantly fewer greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide, which livestock produce in far larger amounts.
6. Are insects considered a sustainable part of the natural diet for dogs or cats?
While “novel” in commercial diets, insects are a natural component of the diet in many wild canines and felines and offer highly digestible nutrition, supporting claims that they are suitable and sustainable as part of a pet’s diet.
7. Can insect protein help reduce your dog’s carbon pawprint?
Yes. Because insect production uses fewer resources and emits fewer greenhouse gases than livestock, feeding pets insect-based food contributes to a lower environmental impact per meal, a concept often referred to as reducing a dog’s carbon pawprint.
8. Is insect protein energy-efficient to produce?
Yes — insects grow quickly, reproduce rapidly, and have a high feed conversion efficiency. This means more protein output per unit of input than traditional livestock, further enhancing sustainability.
9. Are there sustainability limits or challenges with insect protein?
While insect protein is generally more sustainable than livestock, its environmental impact can vary based on feed, energy sources, production scale, and process efficiency. Large-scale adoption requires careful optimization to maintain low footprint benefits.
10. Is insect protein safe and approved for pet food?
Yes. Insects such as black soldier fly larvae and crickets are recognized as safe, nutritionally robust ingredients in pet food and are being used in complete diets and treats with strong consumer and research support for both nutrition and sustainability.
