When we think of plant-based milks, we think of sustainability. Well, to be fair, the burps and manure from the 270 million dairy cows in the world's huge dairy industry account for approximately 6% of methane emissions. It does not help that unsustainable dairy farming and feed production can lead to the loss of natural habitats, such as forests, wetlands, and prairies. So, with all this in mind, more and more people are turning to plant based milks, with almond milk being the most popular choice, accounting for 63% of the total milk market. In a 52-week period before September 6th 2020, almond milk sales were worth $1.497 billion.
Despite the enormous popularity of almond milk, it is not as green as it is often made out to be. 80% of the world's almonds are produced in California, occupying 1% of its total area and 11% of its irrigated crop land. This increasing popularity of a plant-based alternative to dairy milk leads to high demand, which in turn leads to the creation of a monoculture to make production more profitable. In the short term, this monoculture is economically sound and supplies to many people, but in the longer term, as more and more almond milk is being produced, the ground loses its variety of nutrients as soil and water is being depleted. We all thought that dairy milk was bad for the environment, but it turns out that almond milk uses almost 20 times more water than dairy milk! To be exact, the average water footprint for one almond is a whopping 3.2 gallons! In fact, the staggering water usage of almond milk have caused some critics to blame almond milk production for indirectly facilitating California's drought and wildfires in recent years.
Another region where almonds are produced is Spain and the Mediterranean area. In that area, rain helps provide the water for almond production, however, it is getting scarcer and more erratic. Like California, that region has started to face droughts and wildfires, further reinforcing the claims of the critics against the almond industry. The environmental impacts don't end here, as wildfires release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, fostering global warming and climate change.
So now with all that information, what are some good options other than dairy milk or almond milk? Coconut milk, hemp milk, pea protein milk, and oat milk generally use less water and produce less emissions, which make them environmentally conscious choices. Soy milk also does not require much land or water, but it produces more emissions that almond milk. Like almond milk, rice milk is also known for its water usage, even though it does not need much land. Due to the low-yielding nature of cashews, it takes more land and resources to grow them, also making them not a very environmentally friendly substitute for milk. But all of these options are more environmentally conscious than dairy milk by a long shot, so at the end of the day, there really is no winner when it comes to "most environmentally friendly milk", they each have their trade offs.
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