{"id":523810,"date":"2026-03-07T03:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523810\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:06:08","slug":"how-green-is-your-milk-we-compare-the-environmental-cost-of-dairy-and-plant-based-options-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523810\/","title":{"rendered":"How green is your milk? We compare the environmental cost of dairy and plant-based options | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oat cap, skinny flat white, almond chai, soy matcha. Everyone has a different milk preference: cow, skim, lactose-free, oat, almond, soy, goat or camel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Milk choices may be due to environmental reasons, dietary concerns or just taste preferences.<\/p>\n

Australians cut back from drinking 100 litres of cow\u2019s milk a year in 2015 to just 85 by 2025, according to Dairy Australia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated that 96% of Australians<\/a> consume animal milk, yet 42% <\/a>buy plant-based milk \u2013 some households have multiple milk types.<\/p>\n

The decrease in dairy milk sales reflects a cultural shift towards plant-based options, with almond milk and soy milk consumption up since 2018-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But are plant-based milks as virtuous for the environment as they appear, and is dairy unfairly demonised?<\/p>\n

Dr Michalis Hadjikakou, who researches sustainable food systems at Deakin University, says there\u2019s a lot of nuance when it comes to making sustainable food choices. \u201cYou need to consider what the purpose of drinking the milk is,\u201d Hadjikakou says. \u201cIf I was looking for a milk for my children, I probably would make a different decision than if I was looking for a milk for my coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from nutritional considerations, there are many factors to assess for environmental impacts. Fertiliser use, water consumption, packaging and processing as well as emissions all come into play.<\/p>\n

So, does dairy, oat, soy or almond come out on top?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s better for the environment, plant-based or cow milk?<\/p>\n

Emissions are the first thing that comes to mind when considering the environmental impacts of milk. \u201cAll of the plant-based options are pretty low on emissions,\u201d Hadjikakou says. \u201cSoy, oat and almond all have lower emissions [than dairy].\u201d<\/p>\n

Cows produce methane during their digestive processes, which is then burped out into the atmosphere. In Australia, it\u2019s estimated that 11% of our total greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> comes from ruminant livestock digestion.<\/p>\n

According to the World Resources Institute<\/a>, the average emissions per cup of milk is 330g for dairy, 122g for soy, 102g for oat and 98g for almond.<\/p>\n

Fraser Taylor is the managing director of FoodSwitch at the George Institute for Global Health<\/a>, creator of the ecoSwitch<\/a> app. The app collates data about the environmental impacts of different foods so consumers can compare them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on a really big update to our data,\u201d Taylor says. Instead of a five-star planetary health rating, FoodSwitch has opted for a 0-100 scale \u2013 with 100 as the best possible score \u2013 and expanded the scope of greenhouse gas emissions to include data from \u201cfarm to fork\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MeetMeet the Australian farmer planning to get the US hooked on camel milk \u2013 video<\/p>\n

For dairy milk, Taylor says, \u201cthe rating is now around 85 out of 100 \u2026 and soy milk as a comparison is 96.\u201d Taylor notes FoodSwitch doesn\u2019t have ratings for oat and almond because of a lack of data but says soy is fairly representative of other plant-based milks.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlant-based milks still definitely do have a better environmental footprint than dairy milks, particularly on greenhouse gas emissions,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n

What is the least environmentally friendly milk?<\/p>\n

\u201cOat hands down is the best option for water,\u201d Hadjikakou says, although water use can vary depending on how and where crops are grown. \u201cOats are a dryland crop \u2026 It\u2019s grown in those zones where you\u2019re essentially relying on rainfall with very little supplementary irrigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For dairy and soy, water use depends on the farm and location within Australia. \u201cSome dairy might completely rely on natural grass that doesn\u2019t use much water, but some might rely on irrigation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The impact of water consumption depends on water scarcity. If you use 100 litres of water to produce soy milk in an area where water is plentiful, this would be less of a concern than in a region where water is more scarce.<\/p>\n

But for almonds, it\u2019s a different story. \u201cAlmonds would have the highest water footprint,\u201d Hadjikakou says. \u201cAlmonds like a Mediterranean climate. They actually like being rather hot and warm with not much rainfall so you can regulate irrigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor agrees, saying almond milk\u2019s water use \u201cbrings it down a fair bit\u201d in its environmental rating.<\/p>\n

In terms of water usage, oat milk comes out on top, with dairy and soy falling next in line (depending on the farm and location) and almond ranking last.<\/p>\n

What about processing and packaging?<\/p>\n

For all four main milk types, processing is required. \u201cIn the case of cow\u2019s milk, you basically get the milk from the cow and then pasteurise it,\u201d Hadjikakou says. \u201cA lot of these other milks involve soaking, heating, adding things like calcium and fortification. There\u2019s definitely some additional steps involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some research suggests<\/a> that the processing and packaging of plant-based milks can contribute up to 79% of their environmental impact compared with 4% for cow\u2019s milk.<\/p>\n

But Taylor says even when considering the \u201cdownstream phases\u201d including processing and transportation, plant-based milks contribute about 1kg of CO2 per litre of milk<\/a> produced, and dairy or animal-based milks produce 3kg of CO2 per litre of milk.<\/p>\n

Hadjikakou says another main consideration for environmental impacts is fertiliser. Fertiliser is essential to replenish nutrients in the soil, increase plant yield and ensure food security.<\/p>\n

\u201cFertiliser is where something like soy beans would probably be better for the reason that it is a legume,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has fixed nitrogen \u2013 it actually helps the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

For oats and dairy, Hadjikakou says it depends on where you are. In Victoria farmers used about 198kg of fertiliser products per milking hectare<\/a> in 2024-25, down from almost 250 in 2020-21.<\/p>\n

Generally, oat crops use 40 to 80kg of nitrogen per hectare<\/a>, while dairy uses 143kg.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmonds are a little bit hungrier in that regard,\u201d Hadjikakou says. But he reiterates that for oat, dairy and almond, it depends on the farm practices and location.<\/p>\n

Which is the creme de la creme?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no clear winner,\u201d Hadjikakou says. \u201cThey each do pretty well at different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

For reducing milk-related emissions, he suggests \u201chaving a little bit of each\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps on your latte you could have almond [milk], for your cereal you could have cow\u2019s milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that way, you\u2019d still reduce your emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oat cap, skinny flat white, almond chai, soy matcha. Everyone has a different milk preference: cow, skim, lactose-free,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-523810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}