Dairy & Dairy Alternatives
Ecological Impact of Dairy Farming and Alternatives
Data source: Google Trends (https://www.google.com/trends).
Soybeans, for instance, are currently used as a common animal feed (including cows). The overproduction of soybeans has lead to deforestation, and an unexpected boom in the soy milk industry may compound this issue.
The almond industry also has not-so-great aspects. Concentrated almond farming in California has lead to overtaxed water reserves. Large-scale shipments of honeybees to croplands inundated with pesticides can devastate hives, with a cumulative negative impact on the US’s honeybee population.
​
Per Peter Dawson, the Dairy UK policy director, when considering how the dairy industry contributes to global carbon emissions:
"...if dairy farming is turned over to other use, it's not enough to know the existing use of the land. What is the impact of reducing dairy, compared to substitutes? There is a full range of environmental factors, not just carbon,"
Dairy farming is one of the world's largest agricultural industries, and is projected to be worth $546.8 billion by 2022.
Such a massive industry inevitably has massive ecological impacts. These include:
-
Antibiotics leaked into the environment
-
Overgrowing feed grass lowering biodiversity
-
Excess pesticide use impacting local plantlife
-
Loss of cattle genetic diversity and breeds
​
Further, though small-scale farms utilizing sustainable practices exist, these are often absorbed or pushed out of business by large-scale industrial dairy farms.
Per Richard Perkins, a Food Agriculture and Land Use Specialist with the World Wildlife Fund:
"Conclusions from an EIPRO EU study show that food and drink cause 20-30% of the various environmental impacts of private consumption. From farm to fork, meat is most important, followed by dairy products."
But, there's another option:
Non-dairy milk alternatives.
The non-dairy milk industry is projected to grow from $17.5 billion in 2018 to $29.6 billion by 2022.
Per Google Analytics interest in almond milk has been steadily growing over the past 5 years, while interest in dairy milk, soy milk, and rice milk have stayed the same. However, interest in oat milk has experienced a significant recent increase.
Compared to dairy farming, the processes required to produce one glass each of these milks have a far lower environmental impact. This includes factors such as carbon emissions in kilograms, land use in square miles, and water use in liters.
​
Non-dairy milks are not perfect. As non-dairy milks often require extensive processing, they still have an environmental impact. These products can also have negative environmental impacts if they are not responsibly produced.
