- In the last decade or so
there's been this milk renaissance
of alternatives to dairy that are exploding in popularity,
from soy to almond, oat, hazelnut, coconut, rice milk,
and many others.
But which one should you actually be drinking,
if you wanna be environmentally conscious?
- Today, we're gonna go through some of
the most popular milk options
and rate them from worst to best,
based on how green they are,
so that you can make an informed decision
when you're buying.
- We've actually been wanting to start a series
on this channel for awhile now related to the environment
and climate change and going green.
- The climate crisis is gonna be
the biggest crisis of our time.
So we wanna be thinking about it
and talking about it as much as possible.
- Up first is plain old dairy milk.
You may have heard by now,
but the general consensus is that dairy milk
is pretty bad for the environment.
In fact, an Oxford University study in 2018,
found that dairy milk results in three times
more greenhouse gas emissions
than any alternative milk
and nine times more land use.
Mostly because so much feed is required for the cows
and the land required to grow their feed.
Dairy milk also uses the most water by a long shot.
So this single glass, which is 200 milliliters of milk,
would have taken 120 liters of water to make.
This isn't even full.
This is like halfway there.
But safe to say that if you're looking for
an environmentally-friendly milk, dairy isn't gonna be it.
- Our first alternative is rice milk.
Rice milk is usually much less expensive
than other milk alternatives,
but when it comes to emissions it ranks very high.
That's actually due to the bacteria that breed
in the rice paddies,
and it's because they actually release methane.
Although they're not technically farting,
but I mean if it helps you understand it,
then yeah, the bacteria are farting.
Its large amount of fertilizers end up polluting waterways
and doing damage to the environment.
While some of the other crops
have this runoff issue as well,
making rice milk contributes
three times the amount of fertilizer runoff
compared to the other milk alternatives
we're gonna get to later.
In terms of water usage, it's pretty thirsty.
It requires 54 liters of water per glass of milk.
Thirsty is synonymous now with horny.
Rice milk is not as horny as dairy milk,
but it's still very horny for an alternative.
- Perhaps the most popular alternative,
popular, perhaps the most popular alternative
is almond milk.
I feel like a lot of people have experience
with almond milk.
It feels like it's pretty ubiquitous to any store you go to.
On the bright side, it requires smaller farmland usage
than most other alternative milks.
And it has lower emissions.
Its main downfall is that it uses a lot of water.
So this is almost a liter carton,
which means it would have taken around
370 liters of water to make.
To be clear, dairy milk still uses more.
On top of this, the vast majority of almond farming
is done in California's central valley
where drought potential is high,
which just puts an extra strain on the environment.
Not to mention, nearly 70% of commercial bees
are used to pollinate almonds.
And last year, a third of these bees died
by the end of the season,
due to these pressures and environmental threats.
- Next up is coconut milk.
In of itself, coconut milk has a fairly low impact
on the land and low water use.
You don't have to deforest the trees to make the milk.
And the actual trees have a greenhouse gas benefit.
Global demand of this milk is causing some people
to clearcut rainforest
in order to grow the trees for coconut milk.
The vast majority of coconut milk comes from Indonesia,
Philippines, tropical climates like India,
and the demand of this milk does create
exploitation of the worker.
If you do love coconut milk,
it's very important that you look for brands
that are certified fair trade.
I don't think I've ever really had
coconut milk out of a coconut,
but I know that's VVV on trend.
- [Mitchell] We did it in Costa Rica.
- So, I've just been alerted by the authorities
that I have drank milk out of a coconut.
This makes me a little bit disturbed about my own memory
and my own ability to look back on my life.
- Soy milk is actually a really good alternative.
In the Oxford study, across all measures
it ranked really well, low land usage, low water usage,
and low emissions.
As an added bonus, it's one of the only alternative milks
that comes with a similar protein content to dairy milk,
if that matters to you.
It's soy amazing.
What, why did I turn Australian?
And if you say soy, it sounds like you're saying so
in an Australian accent.
Soy, soy.
Soy, you wanna go to the garage sale mate?
I'm so stupid.
Now in the past, there's been some concern
and controversy around certain hormones,
like phytoestrogens in soy milk,
which acts similar to the human hormone estrogen
and have those effects in your body.
But after years of research,
the general consensus is that you would have to be consuming
mass quantities of soy milk and tofu
to see any of these negative effects.
One actual pitfall of soy milk is that in a lot of places
they grow them in massive quantities
in order to feed livestock for meat and dairy
and as a result, forests or rainforests like the Amazon
have been clearcut in order to make way for these farms.
But doing a bit of research and reading the carton
can help you find products that come from Canada
or the USA and help support ethical practices.
- Now we have hazelnut milk.
Hazelnut milk has become more popular in recent years
and this is for good reason.
It's got a nutty taste like almond milk
and without the environmental impact.
Not only do hazelnut trees pull carbon from the atmosphere
and decrease greenhouse gas emissions,
but they're actually pollinated by the wind
and not honeybees.
They also grow in moist climates
where drought is less of a concern
and this creates less of an environmental strain.
There are potential human rights concerns with some regions,
for example, child labor being used
for hazelnut milk in Turkey.
So it's important that you try and figure out
where your milk is coming from.
- Now before we get to our crowned alternative milk winner,
there's a few other honorable mentions
that don't necessarily have as much research done on them.
- These include pea milk, which the producers say
creates only 25% of the emissions of dairy.
- P-E-A milk.
- Yeah, true, true, true.
Not urine milk, whoa.
- There's also macadamia milk,
which is a good alternative to nut milks
because it uses less water
and are typically grown in less water-scarce regions.
- And then there's hemp milks,
which are considered good for the environment.
'Cause they're usually made in small batches
and therefore not contributing to these monoculture,
mass operations that a lot of the other milks are.
- It's like microbrewery for milk.
But as it stands, the current winner
of the battle of the alternative milks is,
- Ah drum roll, please.
- Oat milk. - Oat milk.
- That's the girl bop.
- After looking at all the metrics,
it's the general consensus
that oat milk is an amazing alternative to dairy.
It uses very little water, very little land
and has low emissions.
Currently between 50 to 90% of oat production
is actually used for animal feed.
But the idea is that we don't have to
clearcut forests for it.
And over time we might be able to slowly transition
or steal that production for milk as opposed to animal feed.
Ultimately, there's potential to increase the production
without actually causing a bigger impact right now.
Oats are grown in colder climates like Canada.
So they don't require the deforestation
in developing countries.
The main problem with oat milk is that
it's a monocultural crop,
which means it's more susceptible to disease and pests,
and as a result, requires the use of pesticides
and other chemicals.
- At the end of the day,
the differences between these plant milks
are kind of marginal compared to dairy milk.
So if you are wanting to decrease your environmental impact,
just choose an alternative milk.
- But obviously depending on your personal taste
and dietary restrictions, you could try different ones,
or even rotate through different kinds.
And that would be cool too.
Thanks again for watching our video and our channel.
Like we said, we really do wanna make more videos
related to environmentalism and the climate crisis.
So if you have questions,
or want us to investigate something,
let us know in the comments
and we'll try and make a video about it.
- And make sure you're subscribed as always.
We're still saying that.
In theory we are still YouTubers.
And we will see you next week for a new science video.
- See you later, whether or not it's next week,
we'll find out. - Yeah.