The Milk Industry Has Gone Nuts

by Emily Nelson

The year is 1950. The static on the television fizzes as you relax into your La-Z-Boy and push up your oversized plastic glasses. You hear a knock at the door. It’s Roger, the local milkman, here to deliver this week’s supply. You exchange the usual pleasantries and hear much more than you were interested to know about Pamela and the nippers.

Suddenly, he asks, “Right, so what kind of milk would you like?”

You are taken aback and wonder aloud, “What do you mean by that?”

He answers, “Well, I’ve got almond milk, cashew milk, macadamia nut milk, lavender milk, oat milk, coconut milk, soy milk, hemp milk, peanut milk and rice milk.”

Balking, you cannot even fathom the meaning of the word ‘milk’, let alone conjure up a somewhat decent reply. “Roger, what on God's green earth are you talking about?”

“You see, the writer wanted to demonstrate the societal differences between 1950 and 2019 surrounding the consumption of plant-based milk.”

“Huh.”

Recently, it has come to my attention that there is an astronomical number of plant-based milks threatening to topple the dairy dynasty. It is impossible to walk into your local Sainsbury’s without being confronted by a wall of Alpro. A vast array of soy and almond, peppered with other oddities stretches out before you like a foreign landscape. Where to begin?

I switched from dairy to almond milk about a year ago, in an attempt to improve my skin, and discovered - very quickly - that almond milk just simply does not work in a cup of tea. Now, of course this is a personal preference, but the disparity between the taste of dairy milk and plant-based milk in tea forced me to completely stop drinking tea. This ended my diet after a few short weeks, as anyone who knows me is aware that I could not possibly function on fewer than 3 cups of tea a day. However, this brief experiment gave me the reputation of ‘nut milk expert’ within my family, as my Dad messaged me just last week asking for my advice on which milk to buy. Another avid tea drinker, I advised him to stick to the usual green-capped semi-skimmed dairy milk. 

Even though I do not particularly like the taste of plant-based milks, there are a myriad of reasons why someone would choose to drink them over traditional milk. The main one being veganism. Statistics from The Vegan Society show that there are currently 600,000 vegans in Britain, which is 1.16% of the population. The number of vegans has quadrupled since 2014, showing that the increase in the range and ubiquity of plant-based milk is likely due to the rapidly growing popularity of veganism. Deciding not to eat or drink dairy products is arguably championing a noble cause. For example, dairy cows are killed at  5-6 years old even though they have a lifespan of 20 years and some people disagree with calves being separated from their mothers in order to be reared on artificial milk, whilst humans take the milk that was meant for the calves. In this way, the dairy industry could be seen as unethical and more people should be turning to plant-based milk in an attempt to combat these injustices. 

Saving the environment also plays a vital role in the societal movement towards milk substitutes. If you have done GCSE science then you will know that cows produce methane, which contributes to global warming. Admittedly, this might be the only thing I remember from Year 11 Chemistry. In fact, one dairy cow can produce up to 650 litres of methane per day. Cutting down on dairy milk will reduce the need for cows, which should go some way towards decreasing global warming. Furthermore, the whole process from growing the cows’ hay to the end product of bottled milk uses a considerable amount of water. Various sources give different figures, however, from what I have collated it takes around 1,000 litres of water to make 1 litre of cows milk. This takes into account every stage in the process and the figure varies depending on the farming system. Nevertheless, this is a concerning amount when it is put into perspective that the next estimated global resource shortage will be water. So, can we save the planet by switching to plant-based milk?

There is also uncertainty to not only personally switching milk camps but society as a whole changing their mindset to equalling placing plant products and animal products. The dairy industry is a vital part of the worldwide economy. In Britain, dairy farming is the largest agricultural sector, worth £3.8 billion. Also, the price of (dairy) milk has always been a reliable indicator of Britain’s economic health. Any disruption to dairy companies could spell trouble for the British economy. Recently, America’s largest dairy company, Dean Foods, filed for bankruptcy. This shows that the growing demand for plant-based milk is already affecting dairy companies in the USA. If this trend continues, the dairy industry in Britain could also be at risk.

Included within a societal change is the desire of members within that society to conform. For example, 10% of British children aged 8-16 are vegan/vegetarian and 44% try to eat less meat, dairy and eggs. As a 16 year-old myself, I often feel guilty about drinking dairy milk. I cannot pinpoint exactly why, but I am not the only person who feels this way. Popular culture and the media play an underestimated role in this phenomenon because all over the internet are ‘fashionable’ videos of young people concocting healthy recipes with ingredients that are expensive and near impossible to find and these recipes almost always include plant-based milk. Also, articles, such as the sources I used whilst writing, which convince the reader to switch to milk alternatives compound the growing sense of necessity to change your eating and drinking habits. 

The final question I have regarding the great milk debate is: ‘how does one define milk?’ The Oxford English Dictionary defines milk as 1) a white liquid that female mammals produce in their bodies as food for their young, 2) the milk of cows used as food by human beings and 3) a milk-like liquid eg. that in a coconut. None of these definitions fit nut milk because milk is not naturally found in an almond in the same way it is found in a coconut (and obviously does not come from a mammal). I would argue that nut milk should be deemed a ‘milk substitute’ because it performs the same function as dairy/coconut milk but does not have the same definition. I am not alone in this opinion because there have been numerous lawsuits from dairy companies against plant-based milk companies over their use of the word ‘milk’. Evidently none of them succeeded as these milks have become commonplace in supermarkets and coffee shops. 

Can switching to plant-based milks save the planet? It would possibly have a positive impact on global warming, but at what cost to our economy? These are questions which we will have to wait and find out the answers to when the future unfolds. All I know is that I still have no idea whether to buy sweetened or unsweetened almond milk and I’ll never use anything in my tea but dairy milk again.