Knowing that soybeans are genetically modified and often
have to travel vast distances before ending up in milk cartons in my
supermarket, I sometimes wonder whether it would be better for the environment
to buy local organic cow’s milk.
It’s always a relief when an environmental question such as
this has a definite answer. And in this case, Slate’s Green Lantern
clearly comes down on the side of soy milk over cow’s milk as the more eco-friendly option.
The Lantern points out the it takes 14 calories of
fossil-fuel energy to produce one calorie of milk protein on a conventional farm,
with that ratio being about 10 to 1 on an organic farm. One calorie of
soybeans, on the other hand, only requires .26 calories of fossil fuels, and
their production emits significantly less greenhouse gasses than producing cow’s
milk.
Since I find cow's milk mildly nauseating, as far as I'm concerned this is one convenient truth.
Photo: Food Blogga
