Coffee can be produced in a climate-neutral way, but when conventional cow's milk is used in a cappuccino, the impact on the environmental footprint is much greater. So what should we do? Give up cow's milk and drink only plant-based drinks? We have made a documentary film.
Whether it's espresso-based milk drinks or just a splash of milk in your coffee, communication about these products almost always mentions only the coffee. Because that is what roasteries and cafes like to highlight—the story behind the bean, the taste, and the producers.
But when we look at the mixing ratios of these drinks, the focus on the coffee in no way reflects the large amount of milk used. In a cappuccino, we have about one part coffee to up to five parts milk. With a latte macchiato, it's even more extreme, containing almost eight times as much milk.
It is clear that many people care about the coffee taste and that milk can positively complement the coffee. We feel the same way. At the same time, we set ourselves the standard of being just as strict in the selection of our ingredients as we try to be with our coffee.
From “Who grew the coffee?” to “Where exactly does this milk come from?”
Cow's milk can be produced extremely industrially, as is clearly shown in this documentary—or it can be produced on medium-sized and smaller farms. When we buy milk from regional brands, or even directly marketed milk, it is much easier for us to get information about the origin of the milk. From "coffee origin" to "milk origin".
If we ask ourselves the same questions as we do for coffee, we should ask:
- Who produces our cow's milk, where, and under what circumstances?
- How good/harmful is it for the climate?
- Who earns how much here?
And that is exactly what we did. I drove to visit Jonas Plattner in Reigoldswil, who supplies the milk for our Café Frühling and the Kaffeemacher Café at the Basel train station.
Jonas Plattner in the cow shed.
I was accompanied by Elias Kaiser from Metaproductions, who co-conceived and produced the film. Caroline Siefarth from Delica contextualized the milk from a scientific perspective, and Daniel Baertschi discussed milk in the context of the climate.
Dr. Caroline Siefarth, Delica
The day with Jonas felt similar to a visit to a coffee farm. I tried to ask similar questions, which resulted in this overview.
Small-scale organic milk production in Switzerland, using the example of Jonas Plattner, Reigoldswil, BL
The farm
- Jonas lets his cows graze on 30 hectares of land
- He owns 15 cows and 1 bull
The cows
- The cows are a dual-purpose breed: they produce less milk, but a bit more meat when they are old
- Jonas's cows live to be about 15 years old, which is very old in dairy farming
- the bull is part of the cow herd
- the cows are milked twice a day, totaling about 10 liters per cow
- in one week, the cows produce about 900 liters
The feed
- The cows eat only grass, and hay in winter
- Concentrated feed like soy or corn is not used; Jonas also avoids silage
The price
- Jonas markets his organic milk exclusively directly
- we pay him 1.85 CHF/l
- in a Swiss supermarket, 1 liter of organic milk costs about the same
- The purchase price from a dairy for organic milk in Switzerland is currently (November 2021) 80 cents per liter. The purchase price for conventional milk is about 65 cents.
- Jonas can therefore make about 1 franc more because he markets directly
The subsidies
- Swiss agriculture is heavily subsidized
- Jonas lives almost 100% from the sale of milk
- In reality, however, this 100% is only 50%, because the other 50% are the subsidies he receives as a farmer
- in this respect, the true cost, subsidy-free price for 1 liter of Jonas's organic milk would be double, i.e., 3.70 CHF
Key points from Caroline Siefarth
- There is more and more milk powder, especially in emerging and developing countries
- Milk is extremely nutritious—milk fat, milk sugar, milk proteins, minerals
- there are different types of milk foam—protein foam (voluminous and firm) and fat foam (fine-pored and shiny)
- we ingest hormones from the cow. As long as we consume milk in moderation, this is not harmful to our health at all because we barely absorb them and break them down quickly. In relation to the hormones that humans produce, the hormones in milk are very low and diluted
- however, more hormones can enter the milk through the feed, just like antibiotic residues.
Jonas's cows have horns because that is what feels right for him.
Key points from Daniel Baertschi
- Good milk = Ideally, the animal has only eaten grass and was outdoors a lot
- there is too much milk, mainly due to cows fed with concentrated feed
- there is agricultural land that is not suitable for arable farming—but perfect for dairy farming
- “feed no food”—we have a competition for land; it makes little sense to plant food (land area) that is then fed to the cow
The cow is not a climate-damaging animal if it does not eat concentrated feed. It is part of a cycle. When a cow eats grass and stands outside, it is not a climate sinner.
- everyone who eats is connected to agriculture
- regenerative agriculture is a system in which nature is encouraged again—no standard, no certification, with a focus on healthy soil
- it wants to bring the ecosystem into harmony with agricultural production and regenerate it
Cow's milk - quo vadis?
Cow's milk and especially cows themselves have become the target of climate discussions more and more in recent years. If the cow serves as a meat supplier, it has the highest impact on greenhouse gases. If it is understood as a dual-purpose breed, serving as a milk supplier and then as a meat supplier in old age, its CO2 footprint is lower.
The discussion is complex.
Whether cow's milk is climate-compatible should not seem like an idle question to us—we can rather see opportunities in everything we consume to question things.
We should especially do this in the coffee industry, as we have such a strong focus on coffee and its background. We have to be fair to the milk and recognize the opportunities.
Alternative milk, or plant-based drinks, are not just a trend, but the best alternative for anyone who avoids cow's milk for health, ethical, or sustainable reasons. However, there are also big differences here—soy performs worse than oats because oats can be produced regionally. You can find a good study on this from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation here. Anyone who wants to get a good impression of the greenhouse gas emissions from coffee can find a good chart here at The Conversation.
