Dairy intensification: Drivers, impacts and alternatives

Clay, Nathan; Garnett, Tara; Lorimer, Jamie

doi:10.1007/s13280-019-01177-y

Cited by 186 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…The rise of mylks comes at a particularly fraught moment for the dairy industry. Dairy is experiencing a pronounced economic crisis as a result of overproduction and decreasing consumer demand (Clay et al 2020 ). After 50 years of policies pushing dairy intensification and retailer-controlled milk pricing, 2 profit margins for milk are extraordinarily thin.…”

Section: The Rise Of Plant Milksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After 50 years of policies pushing dairy intensification and retailer-controlled milk pricing, 2 profit margins for milk are extraordinarily thin. Production costs (including feed, land, and water) have ramped up in recent years (Hadrich et al 2017 ) and dairy farm concentration has accelerated over the past decade, with thousands of smaller farms in the US and Europe going out of business every year and herd sizes on larger farms growing exponentially (Clay et al 2020 ). Fluid milk consumption has been declining since the 1970s in the US and UK.…”

Section: The Rise Of Plant Milksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk

Clay

Sexton

Garnett³

et al. 2020

Agric Hum Values

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Plant-based milk alternatives-or mylks-have surged in popularity over the past ten years. We consider the politics and consumer subjectivities fostered by mylks as part of the broader trend towards 'plant-based' food. We demonstrate how mylk companies inherit and strategically deploy positive framings of milk as wholesome and convenient, as well as negative framings of dairy as environmentally damaging and cruel, to position plant-based as the 'better' alternative. By navigating this affective landscape, brands attempt to (re)make mylk as simultaneously palatable and disruptive to the status quo. We examine the politics of mylks through the concept of palatable disruption, where people are encouraged to care about the environment, health, and animal welfare enough to adopt mylks but to ultimately remain consumers of a commodity food. By encouraging consumers to reach for "plant-based" as a way to cope with environmental catastrophe and a life out of balance, mylks promote a neoliberal ethic: they individualize systemic problems and further entrench market mechanisms as solutions, thereby reinforcing the political economy of industrial agriculture. In conclusion, we reflect on the limits of the current plant-based trend for transitioning to more just and sustainable food production and consumption. Keywords Alternative food network • Dairy • Food industry • Neoliberal • Protein • Vegan The rise of plant milks "If you want to change the world change your milk" (Plenish Drinks 2019). "The subtle sweet and creamy flavour of Alpro Soya will brighten any breakfast. It isn't plain, it's plain delicious!" (Alpro 2019). Plant-based milk alternatives (or mylks 1) are booming. In the US, sales rose by 61% between 2012 and 2017 (Mintel 2018), reaching $1.9 billion by 2019 (Good Food Institute 2019). Varieties have expanded beyond the traditional soymilk to include mylks made from almond, oat, coconut, pea, hemp, and other grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes. Mylks now account for 13% of total retail milk sales in the US (Good Food Institute 2018) and around 8% in the UK (Mintel 2019). Other plant-based dairy substitutes (ice cream, yogurt, creamer, and cheese) have seen similarly rapid growth, with US sales doubling over the past 2 years to $920 million in 2019 (Good Food Institute 2019). Once sidelined in natural food stores and health food aisles, plant mylk has 'gone mainstream,' as a recent piece in The Economist affirms, proclaiming 2019 'the year of the vegan' (Parker 2018). Yet, the recent surge of plant-based milk and meat may owe less to people adopting vegan diets and more to the emerging flexitarian trend (Wohl 2019).

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Section: The Rise Of Plant Milksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Rise Of Plant Milksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk

Clay

Sexton

Garnett³

et al. 2020

Agric Hum Values

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The livestock sector, one of the most important parts of the agrarian economy at European level, is charged as being the major contributor to the environmental impact of agriculture, more specifically due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (1)(2)(3). The livestock sector is generally considered responsible for a significant negative impact on the environment due to the considerable production of wastewater and effluents with a high pollution rate (2,4). Overall, although emissions from the agricultural sector have decreased over the last 20 years in EU countries, the dairy production chain alone has considerably increased methane (CH 4 ) emissions by 22.5%, between 1990 and 2017 (5).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

et al. 2020

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The dairy sector accounts for a large share of all European agricultural production, at the same time however, it is one of the most ascribed sector contributors to the environmental impact of agriculture, particularly for greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously, it is a strategic sector for the economy but generates increasing debate in the community regarding the social aspects mainly related to the use of resources and the food-feed competition of livestock involving the reduction of human-edible crops. In this general framework, this study aims to compare four different dairy farming scenarios characterized by different use of environmental resources in the Alpine area, considering as a case study the production of the Toma di Lanzo cheese (a traditional cheese produced in the mountainous regions of Piedmont-Northwest Italy). The study envisaged the integrated use of three methodologies: Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and the assessment of human-edible feed conversion efficiency to jointly analyze environmental, economic and social aspects. The main results of this research highlighted how the utilization of local breeds, which maximize the efficiency in the use of territory resources, such as grasslands in a mountain environment, allowed dairy production to reduce emissions, when compared to the high-input traditional breeding systems. Although the mountain livestock systems have several critical issues mainly linked to social factors such as low generational turnover, work schedules, modest life quality of families, it is however possible to earn more income than in lowland scenarios. At the same time, this production system allows the Toma di Lanzo cheese-making heritage to be preserved. This mountain pasture cheese, to which superior organoleptic and nutritional characteristics are attributable, when compared to cheeses from the valley floor, incorporates traditional values, a link to the territory and the transmission of knowledge. With reference to food-feed competition in livestock involving the reduction of the use of human-edible crops and feedstuffs in animal diets, we found that grazing and grass-based feeding systems were one of the most sustainable ways to produce milk.

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“…Larger herd sizes are more efficient in terms of milk production [5], but they present challenges for achieving mass nutrient balances and offsetting emissions [10], as larger herds are concentrated on a smaller land base. The shift to larger herd sizes is also correlated with landscape simplification, owing to an increasing reliance on fewer high-yield annuals in the dairy diet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Dairy Sustainability with Integrated Crop–Livestock Farming

et al. 2020

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Dairy farms are predominantly carbon sources, due to high livestock emissions from enteric fermentation and manure. Integrated crop–livestock systems (ICLSs) have the potential to offset these greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as recycling products within the farm boundaries is prioritized. Here, we quantify seasonal and annual greenhouse gas budgets of an ICLS dairy farm in Wisconsin USA using satellite remote sensing to estimate vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines to calculate farm emissions. Remotely sensed annual vegetation NPP correlated well with farm harvest NPP (R2 = 0.9). As a whole, the farm was a large carbon sink, owing to natural vegetation carbon sinks and harvest products staying within the farm boundaries. Dairy cows accounted for 80% of all emissions as their feed intake dominated farm feed supply. Manure emissions (15%) were low because manure spreading was frequent throughout the year. In combination with soil conservation practices, ICLS farming provides a sustainable means of producing nutritionally valuable food while contributing to sequestration of atmospheric CO2. Here, we introduce a simple and cost-efficient way to quantify whole-farm GHG budgets, which can be used by farmers to understand their carbon footprint, and therefore may encourage management strategies to improve agricultural sustainability.

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Dairy intensification: Drivers, impacts and alternatives

Cited by 186 publications

References 81 publications

Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk

Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk

Sustainability of Four Dairy Farming Scenarios in an Alpine Environment: The Case Study of Toma di Lanzo Cheese

Increasing Dairy Sustainability with Integrated Crop–Livestock Farming

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