Podcast: Soy, Almond, Oat Milks: Are They Udder Bull?
By: Science Vs.
Link: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/5whmzx/soy-almond-oat-milks-are-they-udder-bull
Notes:
In terms of environmental impact, dairy milk is the worst compared to all other types.
Globally, dairy cows graze an area the size of Brazil.
On average, it takes 9 times more land to produce dairy milk compare to the others.
Almond milk requires a lot of water, and most of Americans almonds are produced in California where there’s already a lot of water pressure. It can take 4 times as much water as the other non-dairy types.
Rice milk production emits the most greenhouse gasses in the form of methane. Flooded rice paddies are filled with methane-creating bacteria. Also fertilizer runoff can be a big problem with rice.
Soy and oat milk both require more land than the other non-dairy types. Also a lot of Soy milk is grown near or in the Amazon.
There is no clear winner among the four non-dairy types. But they’re all very low impact compared to dairy.
If everyone in the world switched from dairy to soy, it would save half a billion hectares of land, a billion tons of greenhouse gases, and the same amount of water as if everyone in the world stopped having showers or baths for a year.
