Assessing the carbon footprint across the supply chain: Cow milk vs soy drink

Highlights

• Carbon Footprint Assessment support the transition of diets towards sustainability.

• From an environmental perspective, soy drink could be a valid substitute of cow milk.

• Soy drink has a higher average consumer price and a lower nutritional level.

Abstract

Since livestock product consumption could have a significant effect on tackling climate change, in the few last years, there has been an increasing consumer demand for non-dairy alternatives. Despite plant-based beverages being considered crucial to foster the transition towards sustainable diet models, no studies have yet compared the level of emissions of plant-based beverages with animal-based ones. The present study aims at computing the carbon footprint of cow milk and that of soy drink and evaluating the carbon footprint results in the light of the substitutability of cow's milk with soy drink, analyzing the potential environmental, economic and nutritional trade-offs between the two products.

Results highlight that, considering the environmental perspective, soy drink could be a valid substitute of cow milk: its production has a lower carbon footprint, allowing for the achievement of food security objectives. However, focusing on the economic and nutritional perspectives, the high average consumer price of soy drink is associated with an overall lower nutritional level. In order to reach the same nutritional value as 1 L of cow milk in terms of protein intake, the consumption of soy drink should be increased by 13%. Furthermore, soy drink consumption implies paying 66% more than for cow milk, when considering the same protein content.

Introduction

Food production and consumption are responsible for environmental impacts and climate change (Palmieri et al., 2017). Livestock products play a significant role in human diet due to their uniqueness, desirability, economical and nutritional value (Miglietta et al., 2021). However, these products are often associated with high environmental impacts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) has concluded that the agricultural sector, particularly livestock, contributes 10–12% to the overall global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are responsible for most of global warming (Cassandro, 2020). The challenge of meeting the dietary requirements of an increasing world population is stimulating a strong debate about the sustainability of current food supply chains, especially those related to the livestock production (Röös et al., 2017; Béné et al., 2019). Food choices have relevant impacts on the environment and the reduction of livestock product consumption could have a significant effect on tackling climate change (De Boer et al., 2013). In the few last years, there has been an increasing consumer demand for non-dairy alternatives, which nowadays represent a wide segment of the food market (Sethi et al., 2016). The market of plant-based beverages is constantly expanding and is projected to reach more than 38 billion USD revenues by 2024, with an annual growth rate of over 14% (Angelino et al., 2020). Plant-based beverages are typically designed to have a similar look, feel, taste, and shelf-life as cow's milk so that they can be used as perfect substitutes (McClements et al., 2019). Even if the European Union is the largest producer of milk in the world (Bórawski et al., 2021), between 2014 and 2019, it experienced a 3.14%, reduction in the per capita consumption of cow's milk, gradually replaced by plant-based alternatives. Among non-dairy beverages, soy drinks dominate the market in Europe with a global market size of 7.30 billion USD in 2018 (Arizton Advisory and Intelligence, 2020). This trend can be attributed both to its nutritional properties and its low environmental impacts (Grant and Hicks, 2018). The results of a comprehensive study on sustainable diets by the EAT-Lancet commission (Willett et al., 2019) suggest that there should be a major reduction in the amount of animal foods consumed globally, which is in accordance with the recommendations of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Italy is among the main milk producers in Europe and its dairy sector represents more than 12% of the total turnover of the agri-food sector (ISMEA, 2021). However, according to ISTAT data in 2016, the market of plant-based drinks was growing, particularly that of soy drinks. Considering them nutritionally similar to cow's milk, but with a limited impact on the environment, many consumers prefer these products (McCarthy et al., 2017). However, despite having a higher price and poorer nutritional characteristics, many studies showed that soy drink production also has significant environmental impacts (McClements, 2020).

Considering the important role played by plant-based beverages in driving the transition towards lower animal-based diets envisaged by the 2030 Agenda, the food industry needs to take a responsible approach towards sustainable production.

The remainder of the study is organized as follows. The background and the research question are described in Section 2. The materials and methods are explained in Section 3. In Section 4 and Section 5, results and discussions are presented. Finally, Section 6 concludes.