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Switching to plant-based alternatives

LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
in The potting shed
I saw the statistics below, and decided it was time to switch over to non-dairy milk. After trying a few, oat milk was the nicest in tea - by a lot!

Looking at land use alone, think of the countryside that could be reverted to nature if we started using plant based milk.

I'm not ready to go "full vegan" in one go, but it seems sensible to make changes where good substitutes exist. Is anyone else gravitating towards plant-based alternatives? 

May be an image of text that says Which milk should I choose Environmental impact of one glass 200ml of different milks Emissions kg Land use sq m Water use Dairy milk Rice milk Soy milk Oat milk Almond milk 00 02 04 06 00 05 10 15 Source Poore Nemecek 2018 Science Additional calculations J Poore 0 40 80 120
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
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Posts

  • BigladBiglad Posts: 3,265
    Not for milk but, over the last couple of years, I've used sweet potato as the main ingredient for most of my curries. Prior to that, it would normally have been chicken. We're definitely eating less meat but I doubt whether I'll ever become a fully-fledged vegetarian or vegan. Will certainly look to continue reducing our meat eating though.
    East Lancs
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    It's complex ... the decline in starlings and some other birds, as well as small mammals in the East of England has been linked to the loss of grazing pastures which have been turned over to arable cropping ...

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Can't abide the taste of cow juice😝
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Not so long ago the only vegetarian meals my OH would eat (apart from breakfast cereal) were beans on toast, cheese on toast, egg on toast and egg and chips. We've moved on a lot since then but I don't think veganism is on the cards. I could do it if it were just me.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    It seems strange to me that veganism is seen as a healthy option.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ErgatesErgates Posts: 2,953
    Eggs, milk and non rennet cheeses count as vegetarian, but not vegan. Presumably honey isn’t vegan?
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Most of the vegetarians that I know eat eggs and dairy. One eats eggs but not dairy (she's lactose-intolerant) and the vegans eat neither. I once worked with someone who said she was vegetarian but she ate fish, which seemed strange to me.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • OmoriOmori Posts: 1,674
    That’s pescatarian (the fish eating ‘veggie’). 

    Oat milk is very healthy for you. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    pansyface said:
     I suppose it depends on how far you stretch out the idea of “healthy” as an option. Healthy for whom? For what? Healthy for people or healthy for animals or healthy for the planet?

    If cows are raised for milk, they have to be produce a calf to get that milk turned on. That calf is then either another dairy cow or a beef animal. Either way, it has to be fed on something, as do its parents. When I was a child, the farmer kept his cows out in the fields eating grass for a good amount of time. They gave birth in the fields and kept their calves at their feet. Now, in many places, cows live indoors and eat artificially produced food. They are nothing more than meat and milk factories.

    Each person must decide for themselves whether what they eat can be justified as “healthy”, for whatever that is, be it themselves, the animals in question or the planet.


    The vast majority of dairy and beef production in the UK is still traditionally pasture-based and there's a  increasing number of suckler herds where the calves run alongside their mothers. 

    It's the beef and dairy in the US and Brazil etc that is carried out in confined 'lots' or inside buildings as you describe.

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    No, I don't consider vegan to be inherently healthier. I have lived with far too, many 'pizza and chips' vegans who eat out of packets. I could quite happily live on Coke and Hobnobs, convincing myself I was being low impact. [Cue the Coke bashing].

    On the subject of alt milks, I hear tell of UK grown potato milk coming along which tastes great and ticks lots of boxes. In Canada there is a wonderful soya milk (they don't sell it here). I never tasted anything as good in the UK and can't get on well with oat milks.

    I have a terrible history of oestopororis in my family and keep a keen eye on my calcium levels, which have usually been so low they are off the chart. This makes me wary to cut dairy (having been vegan for a while). I suspect dairy will now be the last thing for me to change - though I fully support the movement.
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