At one time, milk was simple. The milkman delivered glass-filled bottles of milk and cream. But as refrigerators became commonplace, big box grocery stores grew popular, and car ownership rose, the milkman joined the list of dying jobs while the number of types of milk one could buy increased. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a brief resurgence in milk delivery, and these days, we do actually get some of our milk delivered, except it doesn't come from a milkman or even a cow. It comes from oats via UPS.
For nearly a decade, I have almost exclusively used oat milk, adding it to my morning coffee, cooking with it, and even baking with it. At first, it was part of work. As a contributing editor at Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan, I did taste tests on the increasing number of brands entering the oat milk market. Still, as it became easier to find the creamy, tasty post-dairy milk, it made sense to start buying it for personal use. After all, cow's milk, as my child calls it, has a significantly higher environmental impact than the plant-based alternatives.
Livestock is responsible for anywhere from 11.1 percent to 19. 6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the majority of which come from cows raised for milk and meat products. Cows belch methane, a potent greenhouse gas that stays in our atmosphere for a much shorter time than carbon dioxide, about 12 years compared to thousands of years, but has much greater warming potential. It's not just the emissions, though. Cow's milk requires roughly 10 times the amount of land of plant-based milk and, depending on the type of plant-based milk, anywhere from two to 20 times as much freshwater.
Despite all that, if you were to open my fridge on any given day, chances are you'd find cow's milk right alongside oat milk. I resisted buying multiple milks for the household for a long time, but the simple fact is that my child prefers cow milk. She also understands the impact of the choice, and at this moment in our lives, that's more important to me than whether or not she chooses the most climate-friendly option.
There's no one right way to reduce the environmental footprint of your diet, and telling people there is when the world needs as many people as possible to attempt to lower global greenhouse gas emissions only leads to divisiveness. Growing on this planet, which is becoming ever hotter, requires flexibility. I've made the decision that oat milk is right for me. After learning where various kinds of milk come from, a bit about their impacts on the planet, and tasting several kinds, my child decided the right choice for her is the milk that comes from cows, preferably, although not always possible, from the cows she's met at summer camp. And that's fine. I care less about her carbon footprint than I do about her ability to make her own decisions in a thoughtful and ethical manner.
Here’s our guide to the kinds of milk we’ve tried and their environmental impacts.
Soy Milk: One of the oldest alternative milks, soy milk has lower greenhouse gas emissions than dairy milk, and it uses less water than almond milk, another popular plant-based alternative. However, the taste of soy milk was never a hit for us. It does not make good mac n’ cheese. Soybeans also require a lot of land and the runoff from the fertilizers often used to grow soybeans have been linked to pollution in rivers, streams and the Gulf of Mexico.
Almond Milk: We do like the taste of almond milk but almond milk is not great for the earth, my child would tell you, and she'd mostly be right. While almond milk is popular, growing almonds requires a lot of water. Almond milk also requires a lot of bees and not all of those bees survive the process of helping almonds grow.
Oat Milk: Besides cow milk, we’ve found oat milk the most versatile. You do have to find a brand you like as the taste of some isn’t great. (We like Willa’s) Oat milk produces up to 80 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than cow's milk. It also uses less energy and less land, and compared to alternative milks, it tends to require the least amount of water. However, we do try to only buy organic oat milk as it’s not unusual for oats to be grown using pesticides.
Pea Milk: We've bought the occasional pea milk, but the taste, which tends to be grassier than some of the other alternative milks on the market, isn’t a hit in our house. Overall, pea milk has a similar carbon footprint as soy milk and it uses less water than almonds. However, it can be hard to find.
Cow Milk: My child’s favorite taste wise, has a higher environmental impact than the plant-based alternatives. When we buy it we try to buy organic from either one of our local dairies, where we have some understanding of how the animals and the farm workers are treated or from a dairy cooperative, owned by farmers.
~ Bridget
P.S. Here are a few things that I've up to:
Published: Meet the Ranchers Working to Sustain the World’s Largest Elk Population for Modern Farmer
Working: Through edits on a couple of stories including one on forest bathing and another on composting programs.
Reading: Sloane Crosley is one of my favorite writers and I just finished her new book Grief Is for People, both witty and moving.