US dog treat and chew market revenue

A planet that feeds itself instant noodles and feeds its dogs peanut butter chews is a planet that has, collectively, stopped cooking. This is either a sign of progress or a sign of something else, and it is not clear which. The pets, at least, are eating well.

Both lines surged in 2020 for the same straightforward reason: global lockdowns pushed households toward fast, shelf-stable, or convenience-heavy shopping while everyone stayed home. Instant ramen production leapt 9% worldwide on pandemic stockpiling, while US dog treat sales jumped as pandemic pet adoption and guilty remote workers filled the aisle. Two different species, same shopping trip.

So the correlation is less strange than suggestive: a year in which convenience won on every shelf it could reach. The noodles fed the humans. The chews fed everyone else.