The Environmental Impact of Plant-based Milk vs. Dairy Milk

The food we consume has some environmental impact and now a day sustainability matter a lot. People are turning to plant based alternatives due to eco-friendly items, this shift is noticeable in dairy industry. Plant based milk alternative will cause low impact on environment as compared to animal alternative in terms of greenhouse gas emission, land use, and water usage. This blog will provide an overview on the benefits to environment of switching to plant-based milk. For more insights on the plant based milk market checkout the report published by Coherent Market Insights:

Water Conservation:

• Almond milk: This type of milk will use only a less amount of water as compared with the dairy cows. It needs 370 litres of water to produce one litre of almond milk.
• Soy Milk: It is made up from soybeans and it needs around 300 litres of water to produce one litre milk.
• Oat Milk: it is an important and most popular form of plant based milk. It requires less amount of water, it needs 48 litre of water to produce one litre milk.
• Rice Milk: to produce one litre of milk, it needs 270 litre of water. It is low in comparison to dairy milk but high from other plant based milk.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

It is also a major concern in food production. Dairy farming will also contribute to a significant proportion of GHG emissions. This is due to the methane that are produced by cow at the time of digestion. Emission are also produced while the production and transportation of feed. Plant based product has less amount of carbon footprints as compared to the dairy products.

Carbon Footprint of plant based milk:

• Soy Milk: it is considered as a most eco-friendly option, it release a carbon foot print of nearly 0.9 kg of CO2 per litre.
• Almond milk: it release nearly 0.3 kg of CO2 per litre and make it as a least impactful plant based milk option.
• Oat Milk: It produce around 0.4 kg of CO2 per litre and a most sustainable plant based choice.
• Rice Milk: It generates around 0.5 kg of CO2 per litre an, which makes it higher than oat and almond milk and higher than dairy milk.

Land Use:

Dairy farming require large amount of land as compared to plant based faming. This will lead to habitat loss, deforestation, and environmental issues.

Land use in pant based milk:

• Soy Milk: It need less amount of land as compared to dairy cows. It need about 0.1 sq metre land to produce one litre of soy milk.
• Almond Milk: it used less amount of land but is was grown on the basis of monoculture farming systems that is problematic in terms of biodiversity.
• Oat Milk: It requires less amount of land, only 0.05 sq meter is required to produce 1 litre of oat milk.
• Rice milk: less amount of land is requires as compared to dairy farming but more than oats and soy milk.