Pexels
Head to the counter of your local coffee shop and you’ll see so many different kinds of milk.
Oat milk, almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, even potato milk – and of course, for those who choose to consume dairy, cow milk too.
But have you ever stopped to think why cows’ milk is the default?
Sure sometimes we see goat cheese or even cheese made from the milk of sheep, but its still pretty uncommon to consume dairy products that come from anything but a cow.
Has it always been this way? And how did it come about in the first place?
Pexels
Well, according to an article by Slate, this started off as a fairly Western ideal. In fact, while some cultures drink the milk of various other animals, including elk and camels, the overabundance of dairy is quite West-specific, with many other cultures across the world taking more of a dairy-free approach.
In fact, the lack of dairy in other cultures has led to high cases of lactose intolerance, since the body doesn’t need to cling on to the enzymes that digest lactose after they’re done nursing, since dairy is not a major part of a lot of diets.
In Western culture, however, cows have become the animal of choice to obtain milk from.
And there’s good reason for that. Firstly, cows are quite big and produce quite a lot of milk. Dairy cows have to have birthed a calf in order to produce milk. Though their calves are rapidly removed from them (with significant emotional implications) the mother cow continues to produce milk even in the absence of her baby.
That’s because, through the machinery and techniques cultivated by humans, she is repeatedly milked. And her body is designed to keep producing milk for as long as her baby keeps feeding. By mechanically replicating this, she is drained of her baby’s milk, before replenishing it only to be mechanically milked once again.
Pexels
Of course, the machines and settings within which cows are now contained and milked were not always common; in the past, farmers milked their cows by hand (and, at that time, the calves would usually be allowed to drink their mother’s milk too).
And it was this factor that caused cows to be the common dairy animal.
Given their chill temperament, cows were a lot easier to milk than, say, pigs – who become extremely aggressive and territorial when they are carrying milk.
Why? They’ve made that milk for their piglets, and not a soul else will be allowed it.
Sure you can obtain milk from pigs, but nobody really wanted to.
For farmers who didn’t care to be savaged by their pigs, cows were a much safer and more predictable alternative.
As chef Edward Lee told Slate, pigs milk would be viable, but it’s not worth the hassle:
“Anyone who farms pigs would say that pigs’ milk would make an incredible cheese. The problem is that it’s nearly impossible to milk pigs. When sows are lactating, they get very aggressive. They’re not docile like cows. They’re smart, skittish, suspicious, and paranoid. They do not like you to get up in their business.”
Pexels
There’s one other reason why cow’s milk is the default dairy choice: we’ve evolved to work with it.
Cheese of all kinds, drinkable milk, cream, ice cream, condensed milk, crème fraiche, yogurt, and all kinds of desserts… all of our recipes and the processes we’ve perfected have been adapted to the consistency and appearance of cows milk, since it is so much easier to obtain and more abundant as a result.
And as our processes evolved, so did our tastes, with cows the choice that shaped our culinary palate generations ago.
However, this has turned out to be a little problematic, since the overabundance of cattle farming is a huge contributor to our greenhouse gas levels and, as such, our over reliance on dairy is fuelling the climate crisis.
Sure, you have to grow a lot of soy to make soy milk – but it’s being grown anyway to feed the cattle who release greenhouse gases of their own. Consuming the soy milk instead cuts out the damaging middleman.
Right now, thanks to food scientists around the world, plenty of new, plant-based milks and dairy products are being perfected. And, importantly, they’re being made to match the dairy products that our Western taste buds and recipes have become so accustomed to.
And choosing them over dairy alternatives is one of the best things you as a consumer can do to keep the planet safe and health for future generations.
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.