Overview
Hi there, my name is Carly and I am a post graduate researcher. I have spent the past ten years working in veterinary medicine and on farms. While working in those fields, I discovered that our food and health systems were incredibly unjust, and that animal agriculture was severely damaging the environment, which is what led me to university.
I planned to research food geographies and justice and I had no intention of bringing veterinary medicine into my research. But, after spending countless hours trying to find the most nutritious and ethical food for my two dogs, I connected my interest in environmental and food justice to veterinary medicine. It turns out that pet food has a significant social and environmental impact. Consequently, the premium pet food industry is developing alternative pet food movements, which claim many of the same nutritional and ethical qualities of alternative food movements.
The alternative protein sector is my primary focus of my PhD research. My project builds off my Master's research on certified humane pet foods, conducted in the Department of Geography at University of Kentucky. I received my undergraduate degree in geography at University of Washington, where I studied the advantages and limitations of the One Health framework.
My goal is to eventually work in education, preferably places where knowledge is more accessible, such as community colleges. Attending community college changed my life and set me on the path to pursue a doctoral degree as a first-generation and non-traditional college student. I had the opportunity to assist in teaching at the University of Kentucky. Courses: Global Cities and Introduction to Environmental Problems.
Supervisors
Research
Research interests
Methods: ethnography, multispecies, interviews, content and visual analysis, semiotics
Areas of study:
- alternative food geographies (especially alternative proteins): pet food is largely understudied yet is deeply entangled with the human food industry materially, economically, and discursively.
- critical animal and pet studies
- science and technology studies
- feminist geography
Funding, grants, and scholarships:
ERSC Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (2022-2025)
Master's research funded by University of Kentucky teaching assitant ship and BWB funding (2020-2022); Undergraduate degree funded by University of Washington, Tolo Foundation Scholarship, UW Class of 1954 Scholarship, and Emma Sarepta Yule Scholarship (2017-2020).
2020 National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) Award for Excellence of Scholarship in Geography, University of Washington
Publications and presentations
Baker, Carly (2022). The Pet’s ‘Perfect Bowl’: environmental and welfare discourse in the certified humane pet food. University of Kentucky Master's thesis. Available here: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/90/
Baker, Carly (2022) “The Pet’s ‘Perfect Bowl’: environmental and welfare discourse in the certified humane pet food” paper presentation at the American Association of Geographers and Dimensions of Political Ecology conferences
Baker, Carly (2019) “Relational Geographies of One Health: Critical Perspective on the Interconnections” Plenum Undergraduate Geography Journal;
- Paper presentation at Association of Washington Geographers conference, Central Washington University, June 2019
- Paper presentation at University of Washington Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Baker, Carly (2017) “Potential of One Voice (poem),” Yours Truly Magazine Publication, Cascadia Community College.
Baker, Carly (2016) “School Gardens: Progressive or Reactionary,” paper presented at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Thesis
Marketing of sustainable pet food proteins
Introduction:
In the United States, dogs and cats consume roughly 25% of all the meat-based calories (Okin 2017), which means feeding them a traditional meat-based diets contributes to environmental destruction, animal welfare issues, and dangerous labor conditions that frontline agricultural workers face. And, despite this impact and enormous profitability of pet food industry – valued at $110 billion USD last year (Fortune Business Insights 2022) – I also discovered that not many people in the social sciences nor geography were paying much attention to it, which left a nice gap for me to fill.
Of course, the pet food industry has taken notice of consumers like myself hoping the find the most ethical way to feed their pets. And this, combined with massive pet food recalls in the United States, has led to the development of alternative pet food movements (Nestle 2008), which are the focus of my project. I will be researching how the alternative protein sector of the industry understands, practices, and markets nutrition and sustainability. I also want to know the direct or indirect role of caring for nonhumans.
Project:
I see the proteins on a perceived animacy hierarchy scale, in that some ‘proteins’ are deemed more ethical to feed pets, which I plan to question; but they could also be separated into two sort of categories: technologically-developed and or derived as excess, whether it be from human food supply chains or from a conservation standpoint.
On one end, there are arguments that feeding by-products from the human supply chain is sustainable, which usually manifests as a raw diet in the alternative pet food industry. Next, is dog food made from invasive species, such as silver carp or wild boar. These are followed by insect-based dog food, food made from cultured meat, plant or yeast based protein, and finally dog food produced from ‘waste’, or upcycled food.
The objective of this research is to learn about how the pet food industry is attempting to balance and market (varying definitions of) sustainability and nutrition through protein production and development, and what types of competing ethical concerns arise from this.
Referenes:
Fortune Business Insights. 2022. "The global pet food market is projected to grow from USD 115.50 billion in 2022 to USD 163.70 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.11%~ see article at: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/pet-food-market-100554
Nestle, Marion. 2008. Pet Food Politics. University of California Press. http://www.myilibrary.com?id=236063.
Okin, Gregory S. 2017. “Environmental Impacts of Food Consumption by Dogs and Cats.” PLOS ONE 12, no. 8: e0181301. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181301.
Funding source
ERSC Wales DTP
Supervisors
Publications
There was an error in processing data returned back from the API: Unexpected end of JSON input