News Reporter: Climate Coach: I fed my dog vegan kibble for a year.

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Climate Coach
Down-to-earth advice for life on our changing planet.

By Michael J. Coren

Welcome. This week, hot cycads and purple yams. But first, I fed my dog vegan kibble for a year. Why the switch is now permanent.

A pug eyes cake at a pop-up Pug Cafe in east London. (Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images)

In today's brave new world of pet food — full of raw-meat diets and homemade alternatives — one surprising category is ascendant: plant-based pet food.

For years, a growing number of pet owners have taken their animal companions' diets into their own hands or, like Martha Stewart, prepared gourmet meals for their cats and dogs ("I know exactly what they're getting," she wrote).

But despite the best of intentions and pricey ingredients, veterinarians, animal nutritionists and decades of scientific research continues to find that the most complete, balanced food you can feed your pet is — well, pet food.

And that includes meatless pet food.

Long an unpalatable afterthought, vegan pet food is gaining human and animal fans alike, as people look to reduce their household's environmental impact and enhance their pets' health. Multiple studies suggest that dogs and cats can live longer and healthier lives on scientifically formulated meatless kibble than on conventional diets. (Cats, which evolved to eat only meat, must receive essential supplements such as taurine.)

Experts remained skeptical of meatless pet food for years, particularly as some brands were poorly formulated. But almost all commercial brands entering the market today meet the gold standard for pet nutrition. Early studies show that nutritionally sound meatless diets are reducing obesity, allergies and the environmental pawprint of pets.

"There's all this research that didn't exist a few years ago," says Andrew Knight, a veterinarian and professor at the University of Winchester, where he directs the Animal Welfare Research Group, in Britain. "The world's starting to change."

Now plant-based pet food is booming. The $20 billion market is growing faster than conventional, meat-based kibble.

But the real question is: Will your pets eat it?

I knew the perfect judge. I asked my Siberian husky, Miska (who often looks down her snout at my offerings), for her expert opinion.

Here's what she — and veterinarians and nutritionists — have to say about the future of meatless kibble.

What's your pet eating? Write me at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.

Click here to read the column

Field Sample

As wolves have returned to the Midwest and Canada, they may be saving lives. By hunting and killing white-tailed deer fawns closer to roads and other human-made paths, wolves are altering deer behavior in ways that help prevent car crashes and avoid deaths.

A gray wolf carries off the head of a deer in northern Minnesota. (Voyageurs Wolf Project)

Read more about how humans are benefiting from the return of the wolf.

Learning Curve

What's the snowiest month where you live? You might guess January or February. But for 45 percent of the country, you'd be wrong.

November, December, March and even April come out ahead. Search The Post's analysis of the snowiest month in your area.

Snapshot

If you want to attract beetles, turn up the heat. Ancient plants like cycads use infrared energy, rather than colorful flowers or fragrances, to attract pollinators. These endangered plants can heat their cones by a remarkable 53 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient air temperature.

Read about the 200 million-year-old pollinating dance that has evolved between plants and insects.

A thermal image of male cones of the cycad Z. furfuracea releasing pollen marked with UV-fluorescent dyes to track beetle movement. (Wendy Valencia-Montoya)

The Second Degree

Last week, I wrote about why burning wood, in most cases, is worse for the climate than fossil fuels. Research shows that cutting down forests for fuel, rather than letting them grow, is an emissions loser.

But many of you have found better sources of wood than cutting down trees. One reader in the Pacific Northwest burns logging residue that otherwise ends up in slash piles that burn after the autumn rains begin: "Instead of burning wet on a hillside, the wood is split, dried and then burned in a modern wood stove." Others have found local sources of pruning waste, old orchard trees and residues from well-managed forests.

This appears to be a climate winner: Wood waste, especially when burned in a modern wood stove, can be an efficient, sustainable option to stay warm at home (even if the particulate pollution is still a problem).

Of course, most of us have another reason to strike the match. "Nothing beats the view and crackling sound of a genuine wood stove on a cold or rainy day," writes Joseph.