Vegetarian Fake Meats

[J842P]

Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink? | Environment | The Guardian noting Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers | Science

From The Guardian (Grauniad):


Coconut: ‘An absolute tragedy’


Almond: bad for bees

Almonds require more water than any other dairy alternative, consuming 130 pints of water to produce a single glass of almond milk, according to the Oxford study. Satisfying continual demands for larger almond crops is also placing unsustainable pressures on US commercial beekeepers. Nearly 70% of commercial bees in the US are drafted every spring to pollinate almonds. Last year, a record number –over one-third of them– died by season’s end as a result of these pressures and other environmental threats.

Rice: a water-guzzler

Rice is a water hog, according to the Oxford study, plus it produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other plant milk. Bacteria breeding in rice paddies pump methane into the atmosphere and large amounts of fertilizer pollute waterways.

Hazelnut: on the up

For consumers who want the nutritiousness and tastiness of a nut milk but without the environmental impacts of almond farming, the hazelnut is a rising star. ... Hazelnuts are environmentally superior to almonds in that they are pollinated by the wind rather than commercial honeybees and they grow in moist climates, such as the Pacific north-west, where water is less of an issue.

Hemp and flax: niche contenders

They are grown in relatively small quantities in the northern hemisphere, which makes them more environmentally friendly compared with a monoculture operation.

Soy: back in favor

According to the Oxford study, soy milk is the joint winner on the sustainability scale. Plus, soy is the only plant milk that comes close to offering a protein content comparable to dairy.

Oat: a humble hero

Meet the winner: the unassuming oat.

“I’m excited about the surge in oat milk popularity,” says Liz Specht, associate director of science and technology for the Good Food Institute, a not-for-profit that promotes plant-based diets. “Oat milk performs very well on all sustainability metrics.” Also: “I highly doubt there will be unintended environmental consequences that might emerge when the scale of oat milk use gets larger.”

The bottom line: as long as it’s not dairy

Both Emery and Specht emphasize that whether it’s coconut, soy or oat, consumers should drink whatever plant milk is most appealing to them and not fret over sustainability shortcomings, which are chump change compared with the environmental harms from dairy.

Saying people should be subsistence farmers instead of growing a cash crop is stupid.

In any case, I've always suspected that oat milk is the best of the alternative milks, and lucky for me, it's my favorite.

I've recently found out that I simply cannot consume as much dairy as I used to be able to, I doubt I ever really was able to tolerate as much, it just took a long time for me to make the connection between feeling bloated and drinking a cup of milk (recently, usually in the form of a latte).

I actually prefer oat milk over regular cow's milk for almost everything, but I still love a little bit of whole milk with cookies.

 

[Politesse]

Ran across a program yesterday where someone said out loud something that logic has always suggested to me.

The claim that meat uses huge resources in production is based on intensive factory farming methods. Livestock that is grass fed in paddocks - not so much.

Which is why we should greatly reduce meat consumption. If it were all being raised sustainably, there'd be no ecological issue. But it obviously is not, and volume of demand has a lot to do with that.

I've been reading a little lately about regenerative animal husbandry. Essentially, the claim is that using these techniques, which essentially mimic ruminant wild behavior, the overall effect is actually an increase in carbon sequestration through the prevention and reversal of desertification and land erosion, which is caused by agriculture and by the large-scale removal of ruminants from the ecosystem (e.g. bison in the American Great Plains).

If this were true, this would leave room for animal products in a climate friendly approach to agriculture.

It would probably render meat more expensive, but that would overall be a good thing, since it seems that the consumption of animal products is linked to all sorts of long-term, negative health outcomes.

I've heard of that! A colleague of mine has been working on something similar up at U.C. Davis. Far from being a widely distributable technique at this point, but there is a lot of promise. Which is good, because I doubt we will actually be getting off the carnivorous diet altogether any time soon...

 

[J842P]

I've been reading a little lately about regenerative animal husbandry. Essentially, the claim is that using these techniques, which essentially mimic ruminant wild behavior, the overall effect is actually an increase in carbon sequestration through the prevention and reversal of desertification and land erosion, which is caused by agriculture and by the large-scale removal of ruminants from the ecosystem (e.g. bison in the American Great Plains).

If this were true, this would leave room for animal products in a climate friendly approach to agriculture.

It would probably render meat more expensive, but that would overall be a good thing, since it seems that the consumption of animal products is linked to all sorts of long-term, negative health outcomes.

I've heard of that! A colleague of mine has been working on something similar up at U.C. Davis. Far from being a widely distributable technique at this point, but there is a lot of promise. Which is good, because I doubt we will actually be getting off the carnivorous diet altogether any time soon...

Yeah, telling people to stop eating meat probably has about as much chance of working (in the short to medium term) as telling a bunch of rabbits to stop procreating.