You may or may not have heard that the well-known and respected Susan Thixton, a consumer advocate in the pet food industry has been stripped of her role and title as an Advisor for AAFCO.
I was actually privileged to be included in a recent article featuring her work — as well as the work of Next Gen and Dr. Karen Becker — in a Money Inc article.
Her work will go on, of course, and I for one will miss her voice at the AAFCO general meetings and committee meetings.
But, we are still here, active in AAFCO, attending working group meetings and working hard to level the playing field for nutritionally defensible pet food companies like yours.
Although it is a tragedy that we lost one our most valued and vocal consumer advisors at AAFCO, you will be pleased to know that B.C. Henschen has been appointed by Susan’s consumer advocacy association as an alternate to fill the role of representing consumers at AAFCO.
Additionally, we have Dr. Jean Hofve and Mollie Morrissette (that’s me) as consumer advisors at AAFCO as well. Although the work we do comes with a tremendous responsibility, we feel honored to be given the opportunity to have an active role as consumer representatives in the AAFCO process.
And a great big thanks goes out to Cathy Alinovy for taking on the daunting task of representing the needs of smaller pet food manufacturers. Thank you, Cathy!