By Date
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- February 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- Show Full Index

The Positive Environmental Impact of Plant-Based Milk

Tuesday October 9, 2018 // By Dana Schlingman

Here is the froth verses the facts from Gimlet Media’s Science Vs. Podcast (Click here to listen to the full podcast episode):

Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz about alternative milk [or plant-based milk] in the specialty coffee industry. Over the last 10 years, consumers have become more conscientious about what they buy and put in their bodies. In turn, plant-based milk sales have doubled and dozens of new products have been developed.

The Variety of Plant-Based “Milk” Available
For example, Barista Pro Shop now carries almond, rice, soy, oat, macadamia, coconut and hazelnut dairy-free blends from 4 different brands. (Visit the BPS Catalog or our Alternative Milks Offered at BPS blog post to learn more).

Culinary Applications for Alternative Milk Large dairy operations have even petitioned the FDA to more strictly regulate which types of products can be described as “milk” in order to push back against the growing trend away from traditional dairy. Should plant-based milk be called milk since plants don’t lactate?

Reasons to Switch From Dairy
Whatever you want to call them, plant-based milk certainly has become more than just a passing fad. Consumers are seeking dairy alternatives for many reasons:
• Taste preference
• A desire to reduce calories
• Food allergies or lactose intolerance
• Aversion to animal products
• Concern for the environment

The Environmental Impact of Dairy Vs. Plant Milk
Researcher Joseph Poore from Oxford University argues that making the transition away from dairy could reap huge rewards for the environment. He and a team of scientists created a database to record how various plant-based milk farms affect the environment (it includes data from 10,000 farms from around the world). Though each plant-based milk farm has its own vice or negative environmental impact, his findings suggest that all of them combined are significantly better for the environment than dairy farming:

Soy Milk • Traditional Dairy: Globally dairy farms take up 830,000,000 million hectares (1 hectare = 2.47105 acres) of land – that’s an area the size of Brazil. It requires 9x more land to make a glass of dairy milk than a glass of any other type of plant-based milk. Dairy farms subsequently require more water for irrigation. They also produce more greenhouse gases than any type of plant-based milk farm.

• Almond Milk: Compared to other plant-based milk farms, almond farms require more water for irrigation (4x more water than rice, oats or soybeans).

Almond Milk • Rice Milk: Rice farms emit the most greenhouse gasses of all plant milk farms. The bacteria growing in the water flooding rice fields excrete methane. In addition, flood water runoff from rice farming contaminates nearby bodies of water with fertilizer and pesticides. Rice farms exude about 3x more fertilizer runoff than other plant-based milk farms.

• Soy Milk & Oat Milk: Both soy and oat crops require more land than other alternative milk crops. Furthermore, since soy is grown in the Amazon, soy farming could be contributing to tropical deforestation.

Which alternative milk is best for the environment – Poore thinks it’s a toss-up. But he is adamant that all plant-based milk farms have a much lower environmental impact than dairy farms. If everyone in the world switched from dairy, he estimates that it would save ½ a billion hectares of land, almost 1 billion tons of greenhouse gasses and 250 KM cubed of irrigation water a year (the same amount as if everybody in the world stopped bathing for a year).

BPS® Blog

By Category

Search

By Author

By Date

The Positive Environmental Impact of Plant-Based Milk

Related Products