The DOWNFALL of Plant-Based Milks

Why is it that, in the past couple of years, the exponential growth of alternative milks has slowed down to a crawl and cows milk has gained in popularity again?

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Script: Hanna Petersen
Editor: Sam Askew
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand

[S-NN]

In Germany a grocery store (LIDL) introduced a policy regarding alternative products. The plant alternatives of their own brand won't cost more than their own "real" milk or meat products.

[privacyvalued]

Naw dog. The real reason regular milk is gaining popularity again is because it's cheaper per ounce and people are looking at their dwindling bank accounts as food prices soar.

[todddammit]

The number 1 reason plant based milks aren't growing is cost. Inflation is hitting people extremely hard. Even pre-pandemic, plant milks were a lot more expensive than cows milk. Now... it's getting absurd.

[SnapshotOfASoul]

I'm allergic to dairy and have been since birth. Casein and whey, specifically - they call it milk protein intolerance in babies, but as I grew, it sort of waned enough for me to be able to not be sick every time I ate, and then flared up again as a teenager. Now I'm nearly 29 and it's stuck around since then. Plant milks are amazing and give me the freedom to be able to eat stuff and replace it 1:1 in recipes that otherwise would be off-limits to me. As someone also allergic to soy, almond and oat milk are amazing. I'm surpisingly not lactose-intolerant, so whenever something is lactose-free it's actually more dangerous for me. I've met a ton of people like me, but we get almost no press or representation because the lactose-intolerant are more common. EDIT: Also, A2 milk is not a thing I can drink. I tried some and it gave me a reaction immediately. It sucks.

[elisebrown]

My issue with alternative milks is that they're usually full of gums, thickeners, sweeteners, sometimes preservatives, and all sorts of stuff that isn't just the "milk" from the plant. And the ones without all that are hella-expensive. A good pastured milk will be rich in all sorts of things your body needs without adding anything, and pasturing cows is much easier on them, the environment, and dairy workers.

[falsificationism]

As soon as the generic 365 brand soy milk soared above $4, I tapped out. I invested in a soymilk maker--you just put water and soybeans in the machine and let it go to work. It's amazing!

Now I make my own soy milk for a few pennies a pint. I buy 5lb bags of organic, dried soybeans on Amazon a couple times per year and that's it. Highly recommend.

[greedtheron]

I've never understood how plant based milk(as well as plant based meat alternatives) can be more expensive than than the animal products if animals are supposedly so inefficient at turning other plants into calories. Even with subsidies(which I cannot for the life of me find out what a per-cow grant is), it should be 1/10th the cost to produce.

[Jcewazhere]

I member when these videos had more meat on them. Pun totally intended.
Where the nutrition comparison? Where's the specifics on climate, or economics? Where's the taste test?
We got a bit of the history, how it boomed and seems to be busting, and a tiny bit of the response from both big cow and big oat. Thin yogurt and lobbying.
This feels like a 5m article stretched to 12 with time for an ad.

[guynakash]

You covered a lot of reasons why people are choosing milk over plant based alternatives and not one of them was taste.

Can it be that beyond the "big milk" lobby, the prices, the social factors, the ads, people actually don't like the taste of the alternatives?

[vthif]

Call me stingy or whatever but oat milk is basically water with some grounded oats and oats go for few cents on the market.I aint paying 3 times the price of a milk for that not a god damn way

[dichotomae]

I started drinking oat milk because my boyfriend is lactose intolerant so I kept it in the house for when he came over. I liked it better so I stopped drinking cow milk and my acne was gone in two weeks

[JamesGuillochon]

What I’ve found ridiculous is how coffee shops will charge you an extra dollar for alt milks. A dollar for a few tablespoons. Regular milk is almost always free. If these businesses cared about the environment they wouldn’t price gouge in this way.

[danielatk]

I only use dairy free milk because I am allergic to regular milk (not lactose intolerant, there IS a difference). It sucks that it’s more expensive and I have to pay more because of my genetics.

[Petrichorus-]

I’m not lactose intolerant, but I opt for plant-based milk because it takes longer to expire, and as a person living alone I don’t want my food or money to go to waste.

[ezrasianturi]

Even with considering fighting alternative milk products, there's a positive side we can see here. It discredits condensed milk, milk flavored products, and other "fake" dairy products from being called milk or cream. This should be enforced as those other products contains excessive amounts of sugar that isn't really milk at all.

[Hawk_Sparrow]

I have to drink alternative milks because im lactose intolerant, it doesnt make alot of sense all of this social stuff around it. If you want or need to drink it then do.

[petercunnington]

How long has peanut butter been available? No one ever bought it and thought oops I thought this was butter.

[annaselbdritt]

Very happy that plant milks are so varied, accessible and cheap where I live. Every supermarket chain has their own cheaper store brand plant milks, in addition to the brand name ones, and those are often on 40% off sale

[daviddeshazo]

I can't stand thinking about drinking milk that's meant for a baby cow and I'm a grown human... just seems so weird.
Not to mention how poorly the animals are treated :( and hormones, etc
And knowing milk is made from the nutrients of blood.

was drinking almond milk, but after finding out how much water it needs I switched to coconut milk.

[festivalkyrie]

I'm a dedicated milk drinker, but I do consume oat juice at a 50/50 ratio. Because almond milk is like 5x the price where I live in, the sugar free one of MORE expensive, to events I bring my oat milk (it does not go bad so easily on room temperature in the summer hellfire), coconut-almond mix is rare to find, but for fancy, iced coffee is so good 🖤