Farmers of ingredients for grain-free pet foods complain over FDA’s warnings

The FDA is investigating whether grain-free pet food could be linked to heart disease in dogs. Now growers of crops like peas and lentils, often primary ingredients in those foods, say the inquiry is killing their business.

The agency announced its investigation in July 2018 after veterinarians reported seeing more enlarged hearts and heart failure among dogs on grain-free diets.

FDA officials have been releasing regular updates and urging pet owners to be aware, even though they have not yet established a link between the canine health problems and diets heavy in peas, lentils and other legumes commonly known as pulse crops.

Growers complain that without any conclusion, the FDA is causing unnecessary panic — prompting consumers and pet food manufacturers to shy away from grain-free products.

“The FDA has just put a knife into the back of the pulse industry,” pet food maker Sarah Barrett said at a farm industry gathering last month in Redwood Falls, Minn. Barrett’s family-run company blends and packs 65 million pounds of pet foods per year, largely using peas, garbanzo beans and other pulses for ingredients — including many grown on her father’s farm.

Tim McGreevy, CEO of the U.S. Dry Peas and Lentils Council, said the loss of business is becoming clear as growers look to renew contracts with buyers.

“People are saying ‘Wait and see. We’re not sure if we’re going to buy the amount of product that we have in the past,’” McGreevy said recently. “Usually we have these contracts locked in. Our harvest is happening today, and there’s just a lot of wait-and-see.”

The FDA’s probe is exacerbating the economic challenges for farmers who had increasingly relied on the pet food industry as grain-free products gained popularity in recent years.

The scare comes as pea and lentil growers are also facing trade barriers to critical markets like China and India. U.S. exports to India, which just a few years ago accounted for nearly half of all U.S. pulse crop sales, have plummeted since the Indian government raised steep tariffs. In 2018, wholesale prices for dry pulses dropped to their lowest level since 2010 — and are on track to fall even farther this year, according to Labor Department data.

“I’m concerned about what’s going to happen to these farmers, because there’s such an abundance of crop right now,” Barrett said in an interview.

FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine says it started investigating after receiving a growing number of reports of the potentially fatal canine heart condition, known as dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM. Though it’s hereditary in some large breeds, the problem might be growing among dogs such as golden retrievers who aren’t known to have a genetic predisposition to it.

In more than 90 percent of the 560 cases reported to the agency since 2014, pets were eating grain-free food with a high concentration of peas or lentils, the FDA said. In its initial announcement, the agency said it was “alerting pet owners and veterinary professionals” about the reports.

But pulse farmers argue that the reported cases represent a tiny fraction of the overall dog population, estimated around 77 million in the U.S. The FDA also notes that any potential link between the heart disease and diet is a “complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors,” and the agency is “not advising dietary changes based solely on the information we have gathered so far.”

What upsets some pulse growers most is that the FDA has been citing specific ingredients, including peas, lentils and potatoes, as well as specific brands that dogs with the heart condition had been eating.

“Every time they release these statements every six months, social media goes nuts,” Barrett said. “And then we lose market share.”

An FDA spokesperson said the agency “will continue to provide updates as we learn more.”

“We have noted that many of the diets reported in association with DCM commonly list peas, lentils and other legumes in high proportions,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Although these ingredients have been included in pet foods for many years, it is unclear what the effect, if any, may be at higher levels.”

The FDA is specifically looking into whether peas and lentils could be affecting dogs’ levels of taurine, an amino acid. Taurine deficiency is “well-documented as a potential cause of DCM,” according to the agency.

Absent any conclusion about what’s causing the canine heart problems, lawmakers from major pulse-growing states are starting to put their own pressure on the FDA.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) sent a letter last week complaining that the agency “issued an unsubstantiated warning that was taken as fact by many pet owners,” dealing a “sharp blow” to farmers. He said about 20 percent of domestic pulse crops are sold to pet food makers.

“Concerned pet owners stopped buying grain-free pet food, and the impact on members of the pet food supply chain was immediate and striking,” Tester wrote. “A once-growing industry halted, and pulse producers were left without a market.”