In the past few years, non-dairy milk products have seen a rise in popularity and sales. This move away from dairy milk was at first attributed to diet concerns and a trend in cutting out dairy, but lately the current climate conditions have been factoring in to the general populations milk-buying decisions. Non-dairy milks range from pea milk to walnut milk to soy milk, and they’ve been marketed as healthy alternatives to cow milk. Another draw to non-dairy milks has been concern for animal welfare, which could also explain the rise in veganism/vegetarianism (Gustin). However, concern for the changing climate has started to creep its way to the top of people’s list for choosing alternative milk products. Since non-dairy milks make up 10% of the milk market, competition runs high, and many alternative milk companies are funding research to find out exactly how big each alternative milks’ carbon footprint is. One study found that a liter of pea milk results in 387g of carbon dioxide, a liter of almond milk results in 396g of carbon dioxide, a liter of soy milk results in 397g of carbon dioxide, and a liter of cow milk results in 1,467g of carbon dioxide (Gustin). With these numbers, it’s easy to market non-dairy milks as the more sustainable choice. Representatives of non-dairy milk companies make the argument that even nut milks which require a lot of water and other resources to produce are more sustainable than cow milk, therefore competition within the non-dairy market should cease, and companies should instead work together to help as much as they can to affect climate change.

Gustin, G. 2018. Cows vs. Nuts: Who Gets to be Called Milk, and Are They Climate Friendly? Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24012018/almond-soy-milk-non-dairy-climate-change-impact/