>
Whether it’s oats, soy, almond or rice, we’ve never had so much choice when it comes to pouring milk on cereal or ordering a latte this World Milk Day.
But if you’re inclined to opt for a plant-based alternative to cow’s milk, keep in mind that some are better for the environment than others.
According to a study from the University of Oxford, almond milk is the best vegan option if you want to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, while rice milk is the worst.
However, animal milk is by far the most harmful to the planet overall, the study found, largely because cows are huge greenhouse gas emitters.
Scientists say livestock farming at its current scale is generating massive amounts of greenhouse gases and pushing our planet into a climate crisis.
Almond milk is the best vegan option if you want to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions (black bar chart), while rice milk is the worst. However, the picture becomes more complicated if we also look at land and water use
The study, led by Joseph Poore at the University of Oxford, looked at carbon emissions, land use and water use involved in the production of dairy milk and various vegan alternatives.
Dairy milk, a staple of the breakfast table for generations, has by far the highest emissions — about 1.41 lbs (0.64 kg) for every 200-ml glass, the study found.
After dairy milk, rice milk was found to have the highest emissions (about 0.66 lbs/0.3 kg), followed by soy milk, oat milk, and finally almond milk.
However, the picture becomes more complicated when both land and water use are also taken into account – two metrics that are important to consider when looking at sustainable food choices.
The study found that almond milk has a fairly high water consumption – 74 liters per 200ml glass – largely because almond trees need a lot to grow.
Rice milk also has a significant water consumption – 54 liters per glass – because the rice plant is semi-aquatic and needs to be constantly irrigated, while the water consumption of soy and oats was low.
The results also show that all four vegan milk alternatives have very low land use compared to dairy milk, which was by far the least environmentally friendly choice.
The land use of dairy milk is as much as 1.7 square meters per 200 ml glass, while the others were about 0.1 or less.
From oats and soy to almond, rice and even coconut, there have never been more vegan alternatives to animal milk – but are they good for the planet?
So what does all this mean when we’re at the grocery store deciding what milk to pick up, want to do our bit to help the planet?
According to Jena Williams, a dietitian at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington who was not involved in the study, any plant-based milk is a responsible choice as long as we make an effort to recycle the packaging it comes in.
“Vegetable milk has a smaller impact on water and land, as well as carbon emissions, compared to dairy milk,” Williams said.
‘In general, soy, oat, hemp and pea milks are more environmentally friendly choices than almond or rice milk.
Choose plant-based milk in recyclable packaging to reduce waste and try buying organic plant-based milk to strengthen your environmental decisions.
“This ensures that ingredients are grown without pesticides that can damage the soil and pollute water and air.”
The results of the Oxford study confirm information from the ‘Food Carbon Footprint Calculator’An online tool that gives hundreds of foods a traffic light-like ‘carbon rating’.
It ranks each item by carbon equivalent (CO2e), a unit of measurement scientists use to standardize the climate impacts of various greenhouse gases.
According to the tool, no vegan milk has a carbon footprint close to that of the real thing.
A 200 g glass of sheep’s milk has a ‘very high’ carbon footprint of 1680 g CO2e – more than 10 times that of, say, the same portion of soy milk (156 g CO2e).
Soy milk, said to be the most nutritious substitute for animal milk, is made by boiling a mixture of ground soybeans after soaking them to soften them.
Animal milk is by far the most harmful to the planet at large, largely because cows emit massive greenhouse gases (file photo)
According to Meagan Bridges Durkin, a nutrition specialist at the University of Virginia, it matches the nutritional values of regular cow’s milk quite well.
“Soy milk has gotten a bad rap lately, as other alternative forms have come on the market, people may be trying to find reasons not to drink soy milk,” she said.
“Soy milk is a very good alternative and the best thing is that, from a nutritional point of view, it is as close as possible to cow’s milk in terms of protein, vitamin C and calcium.”
Milk substitutes, with the exception of soy, usually don’t match the protein content of cow’s milk, warned Professor Ian Givens of the University of Reading last year.
Teenagers, in particular, are at risk of developing health problems when they drink these trendy alternatives, as they may be missing out on essential nutrients.