Don’t Cry Over Spilled Soy ‘Milk’Jason Reed
Jul 24, 2023
Despite what vegan virtue-signalers would have you believe, ditching dairy won’t help save the planet.
Now that the myth that our everyday purchasing choices and diets can stop the changing climate, veganism has become synonymous with saving the planet. As more and more people bump the environment up their list of political priorities, the market for non-dairy “milk” grows.
Veganism is taking hold more than ever before, especially among the young. Almost half of all vegans are under the age of 35, no doubt driven by a desire to stop climate change. While China churns out new coal power plants at a rate of knots, veganism has somehow become synonymous with saving the planet in the West. As a result, dairy milk is out of fashion and the demand for products to replace it is booming.
Among the young, middle-class, and eco-conscious, sales of non-dairy alternatives are skyrocketing. Despite a recent spike in oat milk sales, arguably the biggest runaway success in the non-dairy beverage market over recent decades is soy. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, global soybean production is 15 times higher today than it was in the 1950s.
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Unfortunately, whatever soy drinkers might think, their beverage of choice is a disaster for the environment.
Soy production is a major driver of deforestation, especially in the Amazon. Its production is wildly inefficient, meaning you have to chop down a lot of trees to produce a modest amount of soy “milk.” Soy contributes much more than its fair share to the loss of biodiversity. It causes soil erosion since the soil is often not protected by vegetation. That leads to the loss of topsoil, which is detrimental for plant growth.
The growth of the soy industry has led to the displacement of entire communities in some parts of the world, where people rely on their natural environment to survive, only to see it pummeled by big companies making soy “milk” to sell in the West. The waste generated by soybean production is difficult to dispose of and often leads to damaging pollution. And as if all that wasn’t enough, soy production emits a hefty amount of greenhouse gases – the same charge leveled at dairy farming.
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Source:
https://townhall.com/columnists/jasonreed/2023/07/24/dont-cry-over-spilled-soy-milk-n2626041
