Plant milks are destroying the environment… or are they?
There has recently been a surge of news article with headlines such as “trendy milks are disastrous for the environment”, “it’s nuts to pick almond milk over dairy” and “everyone should drink cow’s milk”.
Why? Well because this Adam Henson, TV presenter and according to some, Britain’s favourite farmer, apparently said:
“if you’re drinking soya milk, that might have come from South America and caused deforestation, the destruction of species [and] the displacement of indigenous people” so “You're better off drinking milk from a local dairy farm that's been bottled there and delivered to your doorstep, where cows are wonderfully looked after and the family contribute to the local society and economy.”
So, is he right?
While soya farming in South America is responsible for deforestation, species extinction and displacing indigenous people, the driving force behind all that is not soya milk.
About 96 per cent of the soya produced in South America is estimated to be used for animal feed or cooking oil, and in Brazil, South America’s largest producer and exporter of soya, 90 per cent of the soymeal produced is used as animal feed.
The UK imports somewhere around 3.2 million tons of soya, with around 75 per cent of that estimated to come from South America, but again, we use at least 90 per cent of it as animal feed. And whilst the poultry and pig industries use the most soya, around eight to 10 per cent is used to feed dairy cows.”
When it comes to the soya for human consumption, because the soya from South America is almost entirely GM soya, it is unlikely to be used much, if at all, for food directly for human consumption in the UK.
And globally, it’s the same story with 75 to 80 per cent of the soya produced being used as animal feed.
What’s really to blame for deforestation in South America?
Soya milk, tofu and plant based burgers, or cows’ milk, chicken tenders and bacon?
And besides, it’s easy to go on to the websites of plant-based brands to find out from where they source their soya. Brands such as Alpro, Plenish and Provamel, for example, source the soya they use for their plant milks from Europe.
As stated by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) themselves, “many shoppers are aware of the international food chains which bring them fruit and vegetables out of season, but perhaps are not aware of the feed chain behind their meat, eggs and dairy.” It seems as if animal farmers themselves aren’t aware either.
Okay, but what about water? After all, Adam Henson says that it takes 74 litres of water to produce one glass of almond milk and we are constantly being told just how water-intensive almond farming is.
While what Adam says is true, what he forgets to mention is that the same authors he is quoting that figure from also showed that a glass of cows’ milk requires over 125 litres of water - 70 per cent more than almond milk.
According to those numbers, a glass of cows’ milk also requires 13 times more water than a glass of oat milk, and 22 times more than a glass of soya milk.
If we really are concerned about water use, according to Adam’s numbers, cows’ milk is the last milk we should be consuming.
It’s important to note that the authors of the research are discussing the global average for different milks so the water requirements for dairy production might be lower in places such as the UK because of the rainfall. However, whilst that may be true, the same also applies for the production of almonds, soya and oats.
Again, plant-based brands, such as Provamel, Alpro and Plenish also source their almonds from Europe, where in the words of Alpro sustainability manager Eli Steltenpohl, “these orchards are less affected by problems related to mass cultivation and most of the production is rain-fed.”
Even in California, where 80 per cent of the world’s almonds are produced, the animal feed, alfalfa, hay, straw and dairy industries use more blue water than the almond industry, even though it only produces 20 per cent of the total US milk supply.
In fact, veganism is frequently cited as being one of the best ways that we can reduce our individual water footprint, with a plant-based diet using half as much water as a diet with meat, dairy and eggs.
Considering other environmental perspectives, it's only downhill for cow's milk from here. When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, cow’s milk produces three times more emissions than soya milk, over three times as many emissions as oat milk and over four times as many emissions as almond milk. And when we look at land use cow’s milk uses 11 times more land than oat milk, 13 times more land than soya and a staggering 30 times more land than almond milk.
In fact, because nuts grow on trees, almond production can actually be carbon negative, even after accounting for transportation as well.
And no, local cow’s milk is still not more sustainable because the problem with animal farming is the farming itself, not the distance the food has travelled. In fact, only around 3.5 per cent of the emissions produced by cows’ milk comes from transportation, meaning that buying cows’ milk with zero food miles makes almost no difference when comparing the sustainability of cows’ milk with plant milks.
Not only are plant milks overwhelmingly more sustainable than cows’ milk, they also avoid the ethical problems that are inherent in the production of dairy products.
Cows produce milk to feed their children. This means that the standard practice in every system of dairy farming, including organic, is for the dairy cows to be forcibly impregnated and to then have their babies taken from almost immediately after they have been born.
This separation causes the mother cows psychological and emotional distress, a response that dairy farmer David Finlay acknowledged when he was asked about how the mother cows reacted to having their babies taken from them.
The males are then either sold into the beef industry, raised for veal or shot.
The females are placed in solitary confinement pens, before then being moved into group housing where they will begin the process of being incorporated into the milking herd. The mother cows are then milked every day and endure the process of being forcibly impregnated and having their babies taken from them until they are no longer profitable to the dairy farmer. At that point they are then taken to the slaughterhouse where they have their throats cut.
These are the standard practices on dairy farms. This is what happens to dairy cows, even on those so-called high welfare farms where the cows are apparently well taken care of.
So cows’ milk is not only significantly worse for the environment, but it is also reliant on the exploitation, abuse and slaughter of sentient beings and their babies. So next time you read something online about plant milks, just remember, cow’s milk is worse in every single way.
