I bought a coffee at the Aurora coffee bar last week. The display next to the coffee machine offered a wide range of milk options: almond, soya, oat, coconut and “normal” milk. A smorgasbord of sustainability. There are plenty of alternatives for the environmentally conscious consumer wanting to reduce their ecological footprint with plant-based milk.
But then it occurred to me that four different milk cartons also require extra production. Growing plants, harvesting, processing and packaging. And the multinationals that sell this milk have another opportunity to increase their revenues. While the campus café initially served only cow milk, it now offers oat milk for you to try. And coconut milk. And thus, the demand grows to match the supply.
Of course, the plant-based alternative is generally the more sustainable option. No emissions from cows that are fed soya to produce the desired quantities of milk. By eating, or, in this case, drinking, the plant, several stages of polluting production can be skipped. But why offer four different types of plant-based milk? Okay, I get that some people may not like the taste of soya, and others may not want almond. But shouldn’t personal preferences be considered peripheral issues if you want to be the most sustainable university? Sustainability is simple, literally. Offering a single type of milk reduces waste and consumption. The latter, in particular, is important because our consumerism can be seen as the key driver behind climate change and the ecological crisis.
Shouldn’t personal preferences be considered peripheral issues if you want to be the most sustainable university?
So now what? Simple. Keep it simple! The coffee machines in the Leeuwenborch, which offer only oat milk, are an excellent example. To be honest, I don’t taste the difference. And if all the coffee machines at WUR offer oat milk, we also rid ourselves of the oat-milk-drinking-elite who feel morally superior and believe they can save the world by drinking copious amounts of oat milk cappuccinos because they will no longer be able to set themselves apart from cow milk sinners such as myself.
Resource-student editor Maurice Schoo (24) is a second-year master’s student of Development & Rural Innovation. He likes to cook, and he paints when he has the time.
