Plant-based milks - are they planet-friendly? and good for you?

How environmentally friendly are plant-based milks? And are they healthy? I’ve been looking into this, to limit my reliance on dairy and because of animal welfare concerns.

Early on in my research, I found this really useful article by Which?, which rated milks by environmental impact and nutritional value.

Actually, I was surprised at how varied the environmental impacts and values of different milks were. For example, almond milk was not particularly environmentally friendly (given almonds are a water-hungry crop) and coconut milk, although not water-intensive, may be harvested in deforested areas.

So what came out best? Hemp seed milk came out well envrionmentally (but less so nutritionally). (Only non-organic plant milks are supplemented with important minerals). Oat milk did well environmentally, although it has a low protein content nutritionally. Soy does well nutritionally but its production has been linked to deforestation. Rice milk came out badly on all scores. In the end, pea milk (which I’ve only seen recently in supermarkets under the Mighty Drinks brand) came out best on environmental and nutritional scores.

Taste-wise, I’ve tried all types and I like oat milk and pea milk the best.

None of this has looked into the expense of the various milks and some can be much more expensive than cows’ milk. So I was very interested in an episode of the Radio 4 Food Programme “Animal-free dairy: Could this be the future of milk?” “Dairy alternatives with real milk proteins, but no cows needed” - it’s really worth a listen!