once I switched there’s no way I’m ever going back to cow’s milk.
Why?
Health, much greater taste variety, no cruelty involved to make it, environmental benefits.
There are some horrendous practices prevalent in the dairy industry for sure, but it’s naive to think there is no cruelty or environmental detriment involved in plant based milk.
The natural ecosystem of the land that is now crop was obliterated before the first seed was sewn, and most likely the soil’s nutrients are depleted more and more each year, due to pesticides and crude plowing techniques.
If a moral high ground is what you’re looking for, drink water.
There is no perfect way to produce consumable resources because it takes other resources to make them, whether it’s animals, land, water, fuel or whatnot.
Someone will always find something to be unhappy or offended with even if we grow oat milk in space in a vacuum and teleport it back to earth.
Reducing horrendous practices of abusing animals to have a milky cup of coffee is great step forward and people have the right to feel they’re making a positive impact without judgements that’s it not good enough or that poor soil’s nutrients are taken away instead now.
You can’t change the world being binary about these things, it’s a step forward in the right direction.
We’ll change world being agile and iterative, not by turning it into a waterfall project of “everything now is magically 100% environmentally friendly and everyone’s happy”.
No, I'm not. I get annoyed when people pretend plant based alternatives are a strict win with absolutely zero downside.
If you think about it, there actually is a perfect way to produce consumable resources, and it existed long before humans came along. Ruminant animals graze, migrate and their dropping rejuvenate soil in perfect balance with nature.
I'm not making the case that it's practical or even possible to feed 8 billion people in this way, but the way that we're depleting the Earth's nutrients with industrial farming is not practical in the long term either.
Most farming is done for live stock feed, so your argument makes little sense. Also if there's the choice to be made between soil and live animals I'm choosing the animals.
Not true, live stock feed is mostly the husks and stalks of the plants that are inedible to humans, which if it weren't for livestock, would be discarded as waste. See this video for some more common misconceptions, if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGG-A80Tl5g
Every plot of land used to grow crop represents countless animals that used to live there, and were wiped out by the farmer. Farmers constantly battle against pests, which too are animals, just trying to live. Vultures are often seen following combine harvesters, to prey on the corpses of field mice and other small mammals that get caught in the blades. Zero harm is a myth.
Zero harm is a myth for most things. But harm involved in producing cow’s milk (to animals, to environment) and plant based milk is HUGELY different.
It sounds to me you want to make everything relative so that the conclusion is “everything involves some harm, so I might just eat me some steaks and drink some cow milk, it won’t matter”. But it matters greatly. So let’s not do that.
That's exactly my point - your original comment said there is "no cruelty involved to make it", which is plainly incorrect.
You're mistaken about my motivations - I believe that eating ethically sourced, grass fed, grass finished, certified organic meat is better for the environment than a plant based diet. Watch the video I linked if you'd like to understand how someone could possibly make that argument.
I’m not looking for any high ground, I’m looking for decent ground. There’s no way you can compare the cruelty involved in producing cow milk to that of producing oat milk for example. It’s not in the same universe.
I didn't say the cruelty was equivalent, I'm pointing out that you don't escape the cruelty entirely by switching to a plant based milk - many thousands of small animals died for it.
The natural ecosystem of the land that is now crop was obliterated before the first seed was sewn, and most likely the soil’s nutrients are depleted more and more each year, due to pesticides and crude plowing techniques.
If a moral high ground is what you’re looking for, drink water.