Corn gluten meal, revisited

You were the one that pointed out that growing corn was anything but cheap. I still wonder, then, how people get away with calling it a cheap filler

 
 That's a quote from Ron's post; I interpret it the same as Edie

I just don't see where my views on the environmental/economica impact of corn -dependency is relevant to the current conversation?  My comments on "cheap corn" were in the context of discussing the impact of corn in general. 

That thread (long ago in a land far way on the other board!) was about corn exclusively and generally, not corn gluten meal specifically.  There were several comments, as you say, about corn being cheap, blah, blah.  I stepped in and said, if I remember correctly, that the problem for me was not that corn was "cheap", but that it was "expensive" in terms of impact on the environment and the economy.  We do not feel it now, except in slightly highly oil prices (the number one consumer of oil in this country is neither SUVs, nor the travel industry; it is agriculture).  I believe we will soon, however - I won't go into it all because (again) it's pretty much not on topic here.  I offer this, any time it comes up, as a different viewpoint.  That is almost always my motivation. 

I think I'm needling Ron - all in good fun - because I don't like being put in a box with rabid dog food company haters, simply because I have a holistic feeding approach and don't accept every single bit of science as God-given law for living.  Nor do I like having words put in my mouth.  I am smiling as I write this.  See? []

Heavens, enough bellybutton examining for me! (I know, I started it).  Time to go get the sheep and put them to bed - it's a cloudy night, glad my dogs can see in the dark!

I'd be curious to know when I ever called corn a cheap filler?

I never said you that you called it a cheap filler. Others have and I assumed they were correct because from my observation, it didn't seem to take much for the farmers in my town to grow corn, or even milo and animal feed grain. You educated me otherwise because my viewpoint, in your estimation, was wrong. My question here was about others who still think corn is a cheap filler when you pointed out the converse.

I had to go look at my last post, again. It was tongue in cheek, hence quoting the song. I think you may have misinterpreted my observations. Perhaps, I'll be better at proofreading my posts in the future, as I wasn't meaning to offend you.
 
"Le's be friends, OK"
 
I thought we were.

it's cheap compared to MEAT. What do you think they feed meat animals? corn. Lots of corn goes into each pound of meat. And on paper corn looks like it has lots of protein in it. Of course the amino acids are unbalanced and it is not a complete source of protein; vegetarians know you have to eat corn plus beans or you'll waste away and die. But if you're a pet food company who wants to make money, and you want to claim your food has 30% protein in it, a really cheap way to do so is to chuck in some corn gluten or soy. I know nothing about feeding cats. Ours seem to mostly feed themselves, and never seem to have urinary problems.

also want to add that through my researching, I have found that the formulation of dog food is more than just high-quality ingredients; it's the BALANCE of nutrients that is essential. We were discussing in the lab the other day about how many holistic companies are forgeting this and causing the foods to have nutrients in excess that are simply passed through in waste. We are also in the process of testing the foods I listed in a survey in an earlier thread, and are noticing that their ratio of proteins to carbs to vit/minerals are way off due to the excess of each. Will report back when we get a finalized analysis.

papillon; Will you have the report soon? I know Eagle Pack Holistic is one of the foods you're testing according to your post in the thread  "dog food survey"   [linkhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=41389&mpage=4&key=dog%2Cfood%2Cpoll]http://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=41389&mpage=4&key=dog%2Cfood%2Cpoll[/link]     and since that's what Jessie eats I'll admit I'm anxious to find out if it has the right balance of nutrients. Do the excess nutrients that are present cause problems or are they simply excreted? Sorry to be a pest but I'm a worrier; [] thanks.

No finalized reports yet (it will take awhile to test the controls, etc).  But I can tell you that the Eagle Pack was tested as one of the first, and you will be pleased []  I don't want to say anything "final" because I want to wait 'til everything is completed and verified for error, etc .

  Thanks for the preview;  [] Jessie's been eating Eagle Pack for about 17 months and has a very shiny coat and a lot of energy; more energy than she had on Nutro dog food;  but I've heard on this forum that it can take years for a dog to show symptoms from eating an unbalanced food; not sure how true that is. She's allergic to chicken and has chronic loose stools on food with corn so feeding choices are a little limited. By the way, if a group of graduate students ( I know you're qualified to do the research)  was able to find the inbalances what does that say about the testing and research some companies do prior to marketing their food?  Are you going to ask the companies whose products didn't do well if they're interested in the test results?