Is Almond milk most resource intensive amongst plant based category ?

The whole world is becoming environmental friendly and COVID will make many more joining this movement soon. People in the west have already begun to shift to plant based alternatives from dairy milk. In USA consumption of almond milk has grown by over 250% in last 5 years. It has led to closure of a few large dairies including Borden Dairy and Dean Foods.

Oxford has done a research on water, carbon emissions and land use footprint for dairy as well as dairy alternatives. The studies clearly showed higher environmental foot print of dairy based milk as compared to plant alternatives. The study also showed that Almond milk is the most resource-intensive amongst the plant based milks.

200 ml of almond milk requires 74 litres of water which is equivalent to water used during shower. Almond milk has a much higher footprint than soy and oat milk and it also impacts the natural eco system too. In some parts of the USA high mortality of bees were attributed to high usage of pesticides on almonds over which the bees pollinate. California almond farming has a market share of 80% of the world’s almond and hence stand as a strong industrial lobby against such complaints.