Got Milk?

1 minute read

Many of you will be acutely aware of the GHG impact of the dairy industry (a pint of cows milk produces roughly three-time more than the various plant based alternatives), and indeed some of the alternatives available but these are not without their own dark sides – almonds (bees), coconut (workers) and rice (water) are all far from ideal, so which alternative is the least bad?

That depends on your own particular values, but some contenders are hazelnut – grown on trees and as such a carbon sink and are pollenated by the wind rather than commercial honeybees (as is the case for almonds).

Soy requires less water than rice and has a protein content closest to dairy, but some farming practices have resulted in significant deforestation.

Oats are generally grown in more temperate climates and in developed countries – lessening the potential social risks in the supply chain and deforestation. Somewhere between 50% and 90% of global oat production currently goes to animal feed, meaning there is plenty that could be diverted to milk without materially increasing total production.