When it comes to growing and changing things about yourself willingly sets you off on an adventure for you to figure things out for yourself. Diet appears to be out of the very things that we throughout our lives seem to shift for one reason or another. With so many different diets out there, it can be confusing to see which one can best fit you. What is not confusing is the way we are going along with the way we feed ourselves is not good for the planet and maybe a switch-up is in order. While reducing food waste and recycling can help mitigate damage, our food system as a whole creates greenhouse emissions that also contribute to global warming. Since the USA backed out of the Paris Act and our future is uncertain it may be up to us real people to do something about this issue ourselves with Diet switching. The switch can help ease the pressures of having a "normal" diet in the environment (30% Growth in global milk production from 2005 to 2015). The Key is not to switch up all at once, taking steps seems to be the best way to convert to a more sustainable feeding lifestyle. My first step, MILK
People can choose milk alternatives for reasons such as allergy, intolerance, vegan diet, and personal preference which are good enough reasons for anyone. How about the reason that the Dairy and meat industry with its industrial-scale operations housing thousands of cattle, the dairy industry is responsible for different types of environmental pollution, including significant emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change(and the high levels of methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide emissions it generates). Me knowing this is going on, I might have to step up in my own dietary way to make a change. Just look at how we must take care of the whole cow, 144 GALLONS of Water are used to produce 1 gallon of milk in the US. More than 93% of that water is used to grow feed for dairy cattle.
The growing demand for dairy and dairy products alike is yet another reason that we might need to convert to find other alternative options to replace some of our most used dairy options with a more sustainable option before Global warming and what ever comes after that for us. I'll check some of them out, gotta start somewhere with this switch
Great post, John! I love how you make switching to sustainable eating feel doable. That water stat is wild! I’ve tried soy and coconut milk—they’re great alternatives. Have you tried any?
ReplyDeleteChanging our diets is great way to reduce our personal emissions and dropping milk seems like a great example of this. Raising livestock is a huge waste of water and land as you talked about the 144 gallons of milk to water ratio.
ReplyDeleteChanging your diet through dairy choices alone is better than no switch at all. Some find the vegan or vegetarian diet to be too extreme so simple switches like the dairy are good options.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I never really thought about something like this but it is always good to learn! I think this could be a really good idea if done well and efficiently.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great reminder that small choices really can lead to a big change when we all make an effort! 144 gallons of water for just one gallon of milk is shocking.
ReplyDelete144 gallons for one gallon of milk had my jaw dropped. What a waste! I use Lactaid but now seeing what is happening behind the scenes it might be time to change that. I liked the graph of the different kinds of milk, and I wonder which one is best for us. Is it more important to have more calories or more fat? Which is the healthiest?
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas for wanting to switch to other alternatives, I didn't know how much water went into actually making milk, and hopefully we can switch to a better alternative soon.
ReplyDeleteGood job John as someone who has switched his diet before I know its not an easy thing to do so I'm happy you could afford to make that change
ReplyDeleteI feel like small substitutions can be very sustainable in the daily life. I have a pretty strong caffeine addiction now, but adding oat milk in my coffee has become seamless. Going grocery shopping with sustainability in mind can be a hard transition at first, but it's very worth it!
ReplyDeleteIt's inspiring to see your commitment to making dietary changes for the sake of the planet, and exploring milk alternatives is a great first step toward a more sustainable lifestyle!
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a wonderful way to go about being more sustainable in everyday practice, I had never previously considered sustainability when choosing which milk to purchase- but I am grateful to be an avid oatmilk fan.
ReplyDeleteI love that graphic you found, since switching over to a vegetarian diet its sometimes hard to figure out which alternatives fufill nutritional needs and are not just a good flavor substitute. I will have to give soy milk a try sometime!
ReplyDeleteReally cool post! This is something I never really considered. This may be a great idea if it's done the right way.
ReplyDeleteFor many years I used almond milk on my cereal - so I was kind of shocked last time I had a kidney stone to learn that almonds are high in oxalate and can produce stones. So, alas, I went back to cows' milk since it has calcium which helps reduce stones....
ReplyDeleteThese statistics are insane! As society has become more open to alternatives, there are even more options available, which makes the switch that much easier. Coming from someone who is allergic to almonds and soy, I can still find alternatives that taste like the real thing.
ReplyDeleteI've already been putting in an effort to eat less beef and dairy in my life. If there was cheaper and more varied access to meat alternatives I'd eat those more often too!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there will always be demand and resource issues with our diets. Americans, especially, eat far too much regardless of what we eat.
ReplyDeleteI have been drinking and using cows milk for as long as I can remember, for a while I was using oat milk for my tea. This post makes me want to consider switching it up sometimes to start.
ReplyDeleteIt is always shocking to hear of how unsustainable and wasteful our food systems are and why there haven't been efforts to change this. Like, what do you mean it takes 144 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk?? More people need to be aware of these realities and the alternatives for diet switching so we can put an end to these systems.
ReplyDeleteThe statistic of 144 gallons of water required to produce one single gallon of milk and that 93% of that water is from crop production in the U.S. is new information to me. I assumed it was a lot more than milk but not THAT much more!
ReplyDeleteGot it!
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