Describe your products in 3 words.
Nutritious, Sustainable, Humane
How did you come up with the idea for this product?
Previously, I worked for one of the big pet companies, and guess what? It was acquired! Not too surprising these days as it seems everybody wants to be in pet. Personally, I had no desire to move, so I decided to do something different. It didnât take long for me to realize that I wanted to work on a project with purpose. I chose climate change as the problem that I most wanted to work on (something small and manageableâ¦). As I was exploring possibilities, I realized that I could potentially make more impact with pets than I could with people. Seems strange at first, but when you think about a dog, they eat their food and if theyâre lucky they also get treats. I realized that if I could create a more sustainable food for a dog, I could impact 80-90% of its total consumption with a single product. Very different from a human. Then I stumbled across the UN study that stated insects could be the answer to world hunger, and I thought why not! So we started by making dog treats in order to establish whether the dogs would like this new protein source AND to give us a bit of runway to do all of the studies that we thought were important prior to developing a complete and balanced food. The great news is â the dogs loved it, the nutrition is tremendous, and dogs can digest it as well as they can digest beef or chicken!
What makes your product special?
Jiminy's makes dog food that is delicious, nutritious, humane amp; truly sustainable. What makes it sustainable? Itâs made with insect protein!
Insects are a sustainable protein source using exponentially less land, water, feed and far fewer greenhouse gases than traditional protein. If you take a dog who is eating a chicken-based diet and switch to an insect-based diet, you save 480,000 gallons of water per year.
Insect protein is also a superfood, meeting AAFCO nutritional requirements for dogs. Itâs also digestible! We invested in the science and found that insect protein scores above 80 in digestibility studies with dogs (a âhigh-quality proteinâ) and itâs prebiotic (feeds the good bacteria in the dogâs gut).
Jiminyâs nourish your pet amp; promote long-term stewardship of the earth. We're fighting climate change with no compromises!
What has been the best part of your experience?
I love working with the dogs! It's always fun and rewarding - especially when we can help a dog who has allergies!
What I'm most proud of, though, is the impact that we're making. If you switch one dog from a traditional chicken protein food to Jiminyâs new dog food, then that dog will save over 480,000 gallons of water per year. That pupâs a hero!
In the last year we've saved over 218 million gallons of water with our dog food amp; treats and we've also averted 20.5 million grams of greenhouse gases.