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Milk was heavily subsidized and the prices were pushed to a point where all but the largest scale producers were making losses (~30 cents per liter) where I liv
by _cenw 4y ago
Milk was heavily subsidized and the prices were pushed to a point where all but the largest scale producers were making losses (~30 cents per liter) where I live whereas the price of plant based milk used to have a huge novely / vegan markup that wasn't based in production cost. The cost of plant based milk is not exactly much less than dairy now, but it is actually cheaper if you go by discount brand prices.
That so many people don't mind switching with so little monetary incentive is great, that's a lot of animal harm prevented.
- Reason077 4y agoHere in the UK, plant based milks are typically more expensive than cow’s milk, particularly if you go for the well-known brands (Alpro, Oatly, etc) Typically in a corner shop you’re paying around £2 for 1 litre of plant milk, compared to £1.25 for 2 pints (1.13L) of cow’s milk. That doesn’t seem to have dampened demand for plant milks, however!
- AlecSchueler 4y agoJealous that you get a choice. Netherlands here which is actually better for vegan options as a whole than the UK in my experience but never found a corner shop With anything but cow dairy.
- diego_moita 4y ago> With anything but cow dairy. The Dutch love their cows? Who would have imagined that? :D /s
- xvilka 4y agos/love/torture/. If anything, brutality of dairy produce is hundred times worse than butchering them for meat.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- concordDance 4y agoEnd result of selective pressures on cow farmers. Humane treatment would raise the cost by like 20%, but the inhumane treatment readily visible to the buyer while the price is.
- AlecSchueler 4y agoOther than the corner shops it's the most vegan friendly place I've seen in Europe. The farmers and their supporters aren't the whole population.
- Reason077 4y ago> "never found a corner shop With anything but cow dairy" That's strange. They certainly are popular in the UK, and their long shelf life means there's little risk for shops in stocking them. I wonder if dutch "big dairy" could be using dirty tricks to keep plant alternatives off shop shelves?
- geoah 4y agoIs this just a London thing or can you actually get alternatives as easily in other parts of the country?
- nicoburns 4y agoYou can get them everywhere. All the mainstream supermarkets sell them. In London you might well have a choice between 10 different plant based milks.
- petesergeant 4y agoEverywhere, and also a large selection of fake meat and other vegan stuff in big supermarkets. UK is great for this
- smeagull 4y agoIt's not cheaper here. The moment it is I'll switch to oat milk. I think it tastes better.
- bitL 4y agoOat milk has no lactoferrin, a powerful anti-viral/bacterial/fungal compound in milk, so you are going to eliminate a significant immunity boost.
- ornornor 4y agoIt also doesn’t have hormones or antibiotics.
- danielbln 4y agoYou can supplement with lactoferrin if you so choose, and on the flip side oat milk doesn't contain any hormones, antibiotics or pus, all of which can slip into cow milk.
- bitL 4y agoOat milk would likely contain pesticides and other chemical residues. There is no hiding from bad chemicals but one can choose food that contains support for their removal. I'd be concerned about pure vegan diet for its lack of certain removal-supporting compounds, leading to massive issues after many years as one can read on Internet. I doubt they will supplement missing things.
- smeagull 4y agoSo I'll throw in some cinnamon. There's no shortage of foods that preserve themselves.
- hammyhavoc 4y agoMake your own. It's easy and cheaper than dairy. Takes minutes. Not drank dairy in five years, never miss it. Guests never tell that they been given oat milk and usually convert to drinking and/or making their own oat milk immediately following the experience.
- saiya-jin 4y agoWhich animal harm do you mean by having cows for milk? Its easy to buy bio milk which comes from free grazing cows, the cost of it is almost the same as basic milk where I live. I can tell you from my daily personal experience those are some of the happiest non-wild animals you can meet in person. I mean if we move away from it, yes technically there will be 0 harm possible because we will have to kill all the diary cows, and prevent their offsprings from ever again being born. But thats kind of argument like killing all humans apart from me will end all of human suffering, technically true but not what we want. Plant based 'milk' aint no milk, just drink with some flavors. Not judging or arguing for/against, but its not equivalent nor replacement in ie nutrition nor taste.
- ahelwer 4y ago1. Cows, like humans, only produce milk after giving birth 2. These cows, in order to get pregnant in the first place, are artificially inseminated (and it isn't a very nice process) 3. What do you think happens to the offspring if it's male and thus uneconomical to keep? The fact that these statements (which are incredibly obvious if you have an eighth grade education or higher) have to be spelled out is a testament to the power of the milk lobby that people think there are some bucolic scenes where farmkids go to milk Bessie each morning, who produces day in and day out without fuss.
- ornornor 4y agoThe fact you’re getting downvoted so much also illustrates how much our species is willing to hide our head in the sand and buy the milk lobbies’ lies.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoI just really like cheese and yogurt and milk and other cow milk products.
- ornornor 4y agoIt doesn’t change the suffering and abuse involved in making it. Downvoting parent won’t make that go away even if you don’t like hearing it. I love cheese too. I was eating some almost every day growing up in cheese country. But I gave it up once I learned the cost of making it in term of animal abuse and pollution. We mostly gave up raping and pillaging so maybe one day we’ll also vastly reduce the abuse we inflict onto the billions of animals we “raise”…
- simplotek 4y ago> Milk was heavily subsidized (...) The whole agricultural industry in Europe is heavily subsidized through Europe's common agriculture policy. It's a strategic and national interest policy so that Europe's access to food is not jeopardized in case of war. It's ok that these subsidies exist, and they surely won't go away any time soon.
- 411111111111111 4y agoAt least in Germany the subsidiary is disproportionate for the large scale industry as it got paid by animal, so the more you can cram into a building, the more you get subsidized. Animals in Germany are living through an extreme hell because of several financial incentives which make it so profitable for the one's willing to ignore the animals. And the farmers that have even a tiny bit of a conscience are getting in severe financial trouble as they just can't compete on price. Especially as that kind of animal cruelty they're forced into comes with it's own psychological issues.