Plant milk alternatives as heroes of climate change

Our diet has an impact on our climate and our planet. Read in detail here about how animal products play a particularly inglorious role. Our climate will thank us for it if we replace our daily drop of cow’s milk in our coffee with plant milk, as animal products use enormous amounts of water, land, and involve huge methane emissions: all of which have an especially negative impact on our environment. So who’s the superhero among milk alternatives? Which plant-based milk substitute is the most ecological? Which requires the least water? Which the least land? And of course, which one tastes best? We’ve taken a closer look on your behalf!

Superhero plant milk – savior of field and forest

Animal products use a whole lot of land. Worldwide, the milk and cheese industry requires an area the size of China. Plus, cows don’t just need space to live, they also need a lot of plant-based feed – and that’s got to be cultivated somewhere. When a soya bean goes straight into a soya drink, bypassing the cow, it becomes a superhero, as it uses around 60 % less land than the same amount of cow’s milk. The figures for rice milk, almond milk and oat drinks tell a similar story. So if you want to protect unspoiled natural landscapes as much as possible, plant milk is the obvious and sustainable answer.

Plant milk as CO2 hero

The fact that around 90 % of imported (rainforest) soya is fed to animals has an incredibly negative impact on the CO2 balance of animal products. But don’t worry: Joya only uses soya sourced from Austria and the EU, so you can be sure that your soya drink isn’t putting a strain on the environment. But even when local cows enjoy the pleasure of grass and hay flowers, their digestive system makes a real stink on the climate: every year, a single cow emits the CO2 equivalent of a small car covering 18,000 km – and there are two million of them in Austria alone. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) published some alarming figures in 2018: The five biggest meat and dairy concerns in the world cause more greenhouse gas emissions every year than the biggest oil corporation. In the race for best CO2 balance, almond and oat drinks boast the most effective climate-protecting super powers, but soya and rice milk are still considerably better than normal dairy milk.

Plant milk – a superhero that blows competitors out of the water

So let’s turn to water consumption. Between 100 and 500 liters of hidden water are used to produce one liter of cow’s milk, depending on the animal husbandry practices and feed used. Per capita, 52.8 liters of cow’s milk were consumed in Germany most recently, with the figures hitting 77.4 liters in Austria. This astounding amount of water, which is per capita for Austrian milk consumption, is equivalent to 220 full bath tubs! Once again, plant milk is the better option: If we replaced the same amount of cow’s milk with oat milk, we would fill just 18 bath tubs with the water that was required. Almond and rice drinks, however, also require a fair amount of water in manufacture. So if you care about wasting water, we cast our vote for superheroes oat and soya milk for protecting the climate.

Delectable variety in the kitchen

So now we come to which of these superheroes wins on flavor... To answer this question, you’ll need to try the whole range! We love the colorful variety of our plant drinks. Each one has its own unique aroma and combination of nutrients. Our products are enriched with additional vitamins, enhanced with a touch of vanilla or chocolate, or come in their pure natural flavor. And all of them can play a starring role in your kitchen: in coffee, we prefer the mild Soya Drink Barista; in our cereal we tend to reach for the Almond Drink; for baking, you can’t go wrong with our Oat Drink. And because our sustainable plant drinks don’t overstrain our planet, the sky’s the limit when it comes to imaginative use of them. We wish you lots of fun on your adventures with our superheroes!