4 ms·

Almond milk is still way more sustainable than cow milk. Maybe not as much as homemade but still an improvement.

erikpukinskis 8y ago
Is it? I would expect the variance in the sustainability to be quite high, with the most sustainable (pasture fed) dairy farms being much better than the average almond milk producer. That’s just an intuition though. Also assuming we’re talking per gram of protein and fat here. Cup for cup almond milk might be more sustainable but there’s far more nutrition in a cup of cow milk.
- jelliclesfarm 8y ago
  An almond tree lasts for decades while a dairy cow has a considerably short life during which time she is abused by the Ag system and releases methane, poop, consumes a lot of inputs and a lot of water and labour and fossil fuel and electricity and refrigeration. It costs a dairy farmer more to produce a gallon of milk than it costs the consumer to buy it. It’s an industry entirely supported by subsidies. So it’s not profitable either. Many dairy farms are shuttered and farmers are committing suicide in America. And many more older farmers end up severely depressed as they question the only way of life they know and it is increasingly becoming hollow and meaningless. It’s beyond unsustainable. It’s abusive to everyone on that supply chain.
  - Someone 8y ago
    ”An almond tree lasts for decades while a dairy cow has a considerably short life” That doesn’t matter, sustainability-wise. What matters is that the cycle gets closed, not its duration. Insects typically live shorter than mammals, but eating them instead of cows and pigs is a net win. ”and a lot of water” California produces about 80% of the world’s almonds, and each nut requires 12 liters of water that do not get replenished. ”It’s beyond unsustainable.” Not that different from almonds.
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    It’s easy for me to push my intuitions in either direction. I’ve been contemplating a YouTube channel that compares actual diets along all of these axes and shows real numbers. All I tend to see is hand waving, or very gross comparisons of single metrics (like co2) at the commodity level. The heuristic “plants are generally more sustainable” reads true to me. But “pick the better kingdom” seems like such a low bar to clear. I’d like to head towards actual understanding of embodied energy, cruelty, etc per unit of useful nutrition in specific meal plans.

Is it? I would expect the variance in the sustainability to be quite high, with the most sustainable (pasture fed) dairy farms being much better than the average almond milk producer. That’s just an intuition though. Also assuming we’re talking per gram of protein and fat here. Cup for cup almond milk might be more sustainable but there’s far more nutrition in a cup of cow milk.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago
An almond tree lasts for decades while a dairy cow has a considerably short life during which time she is abused by the Ag system and releases methane, poop, consumes a lot of inputs and a lot of water and labour and fossil fuel and electricity and refrigeration. It costs a dairy farmer more to produce a gallon of milk than it costs the consumer to buy it. It’s an industry entirely supported by subsidies. So it’s not profitable either. Many dairy farms are shuttered and farmers are committing suicide in America. And many more older farmers end up severely depressed as they question the only way of life they know and it is increasingly becoming hollow and meaningless. It’s beyond unsustainable. It’s abusive to everyone on that supply chain.
- Someone 8y ago
  ”An almond tree lasts for decades while a dairy cow has a considerably short life” That doesn’t matter, sustainability-wise. What matters is that the cycle gets closed, not its duration. Insects typically live shorter than mammals, but eating them instead of cows and pigs is a net win. ”and a lot of water” California produces about 80% of the world’s almonds, and each nut requires 12 liters of water that do not get replenished. ”It’s beyond unsustainable.” Not that different from almonds.
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  It’s easy for me to push my intuitions in either direction. I’ve been contemplating a YouTube channel that compares actual diets along all of these axes and shows real numbers. All I tend to see is hand waving, or very gross comparisons of single metrics (like co2) at the commodity level. The heuristic “plants are generally more sustainable” reads true to me. But “pick the better kingdom” seems like such a low bar to clear. I’d like to head towards actual understanding of embodied energy, cruelty, etc per unit of useful nutrition in specific meal plans.