But the person who drinks almond milk is an “ignorant hipster,” apparently. That’s what Mother Jones’s Tom Philpott called me and my almond-drinking ilk in a recent editorial. Truthfully, on some level, I agree with him. Almond milk is, as he notes, relatively devoid of protein and has to be fortified with vitamins and minerals to meet its label claims. It’s also an eco-wasteful, water-intensive product, consuming 1.1 gallons of water per almond, according to Philpott and Mother Jones. Meanwhile, according to Venessa Wong over at Businessweek, almond milk sales are tree high—and rising. Nielsen data show we’re shelling out cash for it to the tune of a 46% sales increase over last year. “Almond milk is now an almost $738 million business, and the nutty drink has replaced soy as America’s preferred plant-based milk,” she writes. But cow’s milk still outsells every other nondairy drink. And while organic cow’s milk is probably still the best nutritional bet nutrientwise, that bet comes with a serious downside—massively adding to climate change—which brings us back to a big flaw in Philpott’s promotion of dairy drinks. With cows, there are methane emissions, electricity consumption, fertilizers, feed, massive amounts of water, land misuse, rain forest burning, and on and on. His holier-than-thou answer to the problem—dousing his morning bowl in organic kefir—rings hollow when the environmental comparison between cow-based products and almond milk (or any other milk alternative, for that matter) is weighed. MORE: Is This Sign Making Fun of You? Maybe. There are trade-offs with any food choice, of course, but it’s times like these when I like to straighten my DeLorean-crashing-into-the-Tardis tee* and point to the growing evidence that vegetarian and vegan dietary lifestyles are key elements in helping to stop climate change and environmental degradation. At this time, I also like to casually mention that I’ve been doing the whole nondairy thing for longer than most “ignorant hipsters” have been alive (did I already mention that?) and look at his reasoning and say, “I’ll use whatever the f— I want on my organic Fruity O’s.” Downing cow products while calling almond milk “deeply weird” or “an abuse” or “insane” is the logical equivalent of you telling me I shouldn’t use a paper towel because it wastes trees—as you herd your brood of children into a minivan. You’d better take a long, hard look at yourself in that organic kefir tomorrow morning, Philpott. I think something looks a little nutty. *That’s an ignorant-hipster joke.
