Agriculture

Oat and soy milks are planet friendly, but not as nutritious as cow milk

Plant-based milks still need work to boost calcium and vitamin D

a photo of several bottle of plant milks on a table

Plant-based milks are helping to offset many of the environmental impacts of dairy.

Mizina/iStock/Getty Images Plus

By Nikk Ogasa

If you’ve got milk, you’ve got options. You can lighten your coffee or soak a cookie, ferment a cheese or bestow yourself a mustache. You can float some cereal or mix a shake. Replacing such a versatile substance is a tall order. And yet there is ample reason to pursue alternatives.

Producing a single liter of cow’s milk requires about 9 square meters of land and about 630 liters of water.