Unfortunately I never found a vegan cheese alternative that comes close to real cheese to top a pizza. Perhaps one day we will be able to get lab grown milk to get some veg cheese that tastes like the real thing
The carbon footprint of eggs is relatively low, way below the meat and even below cheese and fish. Rather closer to the vegetables (although not quite the same).
@@sachin2842 they were talking about eggs, a chicken can produce a lot of eggs, if you raise chickens to eat them, the carbon footprint is probably much higher!
Actually pay less attention to expiration dates and instead school your senses if a food product is still consumable instead of throwing it away on a specific day while it may last a couple of more days. In my experience also helps a lot to regulate your diate in a way that you can more easily plan out what you need to buy without letting any food go to waste. For that to work though you need to prepare your meals yourself, instead of eating in a cantine or a restaurant.
@@kinngrimm Senses can be misleading. I have histamine intolerance. I can tell you for a fact that food that is not fresh still tastes great but it is just not the same. Many people are capable of digesting older stuff without consequences - good for them. However, dates are important for many people. I think better planning is certainly the way to go. However, I will disagree about cantines and restaurants. It is clear that cooking a meal for hundreds of people is much more efficient in terms of ingredients and water per person than cooking a meal for just one or two people. Also, you don't run the risk of buying stuff and suddenly not finding the time to cook it because something came up.
Cool subject, but i certainly think you can include more criterias than just water usage and carbon footprint. The fact that male cows are killed in milk producing farms can influence some choices, and also the social impact of growing cashews could have been discussed. I have seen some documentation on how cashews harvesters get their hands burned while peeling the cashews. The most important impacts here are not due to cheese producers but to the ingredients before, which is what i think you should have visited and questioned (we saw a bit of the farm but not enough on their process and animal care in my opinion)
I think the documentations about cashew harvesters getting burned are from India? The world's largest cashew exporter is Vietnam, and there the process of cashew processing is already automated by large.
I completely agree that the discussion was a little myopic for such a complex issue. I hope they do a broader dive at some point so people can make more informed decisions
I think the documentary purposefully aimed to adress the ecological footprint only so as to not deter the demographic of people that care about climate change, but simply aren't as passionate about animal welfare. People aren't all equally empathetic but we need *everyone* to work together to make these much needed changes.
Cashew has massive problems way beyond it's carbon footprint. The cashew industry is terrible, poorly regulated and exploitive. The mostly women and girls who process the cashew nuts get skin conditions from the toxic fluid in the nuts and repeat exposure have caused some women to lose fingers. I started avoiding cashews after I found out. Many of the problems with cheese, are similar to the problems of industrial beef. Most of those problems can be solved or managed by using regenerative techniques. Currently, we have no idea of how low or carbon neutral or possibly carbon negative a dairy operation might go in a properly designed system. Until we know that, we should be trying to build those well designed regenerative systems and not be trying to make some major societal dietary changeover. Mass conversion away from long standing traditional foods, for a novel dietary fad, could cause unforeseen consequences that leave us in a worse spot than we were in before.
But why try to build sustainable ways to exploit animals instead accepting that animal agriculture is bad for everyone, including the animals that are killed and all animals that inhabit this planet. Even if we can make animal products sustainable we are still exploiting animals unecessarily and feeding people unhealthy food.
Calling it dietary fad when billions of people in the world have been vegetarian for thousands of years seems disingenuous. Also, I agree, lac-grown meat or milk/cheese is a good thing to do. But you need more than a single solution for human diet in the future when we finally stretched the earth resources to the brink.
@@axelkvarnstrom1826 meat is not inhenrently unhealthy, meat can be ethical and not be exploitation in a sense that things eating other things is just the process of life
@@thetieguy4961 I would argue that exploiting animals can't be ethical, because of the fact that it is completely unnecessary. A good athical framwork should be based on minimizing suffering where it isn't necessary.Of course I wouldn't blame a lion for eating an antilope but we don't have to consume meat, and are therefore causing uncessesary suffering .
@@axelkvarnstrom1826 one could argue that meat consumption is necessary for survival (of the society as a whole) and that overall it cause less suffering then a full plant based diet (that is hard to produce when it comes to fur filling all the dietery needs). Full vegan would be so damaging for the environment that it would kill more animals overall
I just want to also point out another dilemma of cashew, labor-intensive and it most cases, workers don't have a conducive working environment and receive low pay
Cashews are INCREDIBLY destructive. I mean, we're basically clearing out immensely biodiverse, pristine forests at tropical locations and calling them cruelty-free alternatives? When we could do some sustainable grazing which actually sequesters carbon and creates biodiverse environments, integrating animals into landscapes, here at home? Cashews are a perfect example of how, with the best of intentions, people might actually be increasing their ecological footprint, plus environment destruction and the destruction of biodiversity. We urgently need to have conversations about this. Monocultures are the problem (including in support of current animal products, of course). Monocultures cannot be the solution.
Hi there! For our vegan cheese alternatives, we made sure that the working conditions for all workers are fair and save. That's why the cashews we use for our production are being opened by machines. :)
@@dr.mannahs4454 that's commendable. To be honest, however, I still can't quite make out how sourcing cashews from the other side of the world (and with an expanding market, that means clearing pristine forests that are irreplaceable ecosystems), could be more sustainable than having goats graze inside sustainably managed land on this side of the world. Goats feed on anything, even briars. That's another thing I'd like to have a conversation on.
@@Ardoxsho The number one cause of biodiversity loss and deforestation is animal agriculture. Stop trying to act like cashews are ruining the environment to promote your little grazing fantasy.
The real contributor to pollution (80%) is the fossil fuel industry and all the others dependent on it. I get that cows produce alot of emissions too, but even if we get rid of all the beef and cow lactates consumption we'd still be in deep trouble by 2100.
Just another diversion likely spread by the fossil fuel industry. It's the "personal carbon footprint" all over again. (Was introduced by BP in a marketing campaign to shift blame to consumers)
You are totally correct. Also a lot of calculations of various products include transport costs by plane and truck. If rail was used instead transport footprint would be cut by 80-95%. Governments worldwide need to invest into rail infrastructure as the greenest transport. And stop subsidising fossil fuel obviously.
You never talked about the new, new kid on the block: Remilk. It's a company that uses bacteria to produce milk proteins and then turned into dairy products. If you want clean milk that is just like the real thing, go for that.
I really hope they succeed for the sake of the planet because I and many people's consumption of cheese is bringing more harm to the planet than eating 🍖. Mind due lot of people still can't even afford cheese, yet
This is only really correct for factory farming, not regenerative farming (which can be done at scale, but requires a lot of land, of which we have a lot in the US at least). The water issue is not an issue on traditional or regenerative farms as its all green water anyways and would otherwise be in the environment unused. The carbon foot print is also offset or entirely eliminated in those farms, so really the message should be, convert factory farming into sustainable farming. A lot if not all of these issues would go away.
Thank you for this awesome video. As a land-use scientist, one thing i will point out is your point about vegan cheese crops needing more water to grow than cheese is highly misleading. Cheese production itself might not need that much water, but the imbedded water to grow the crops to feed the cow and to hydrate the cow would be far greater compared to the vegan cheese crops. Overall, vegan cheese will always be orders of magnitude better in terms of water, emissions and animal welfare (yes even cashew and almond cheese). I think it's also important to talk about how consumer goods can be exploitative to labourers. The cheese makers you visited all seem like ethical and sustainable businesses, but there are obviously lots of problems with farmers exploiting labourers to pick their crops and to raise animals on factory farms. Overall, less labour is required for vegan cheeses as well, which is why I choose vegan cheeses every time yet avoid cashews.
Did the dutch study consider logistical inpact of cheese ingredients? I feel like milk from like 100 km away needs a lot less co2 than cashews from vietnam.
You are underestimating the transport impact over sea travel. It is quiet marvelous how much you can transport (slowly) with so little emissions while burning the worst kind of oil.
Damn, lots of comments here that are quite on the defensive. Really enjoyed the video. I feel like having these conversations are good to have (about how things that we can take for granted affect the environment) as they give insight into something that people haven't really thought about. I feel like if as a society we're able to treat foods that have a high environmental cost as luxury foods, and consume them only on special occasions, it would reduce the strain on the environment and help towards having a sustainable food system. Looking forward to what else you put out!
It's not sustainable if we're using someone else to do the work and die for it. I am talking about animals used to produce milk in the first place be it cows or goats.
Yes! As someone who is currently studing Food Industries, it pains me how easily people throw away food that takes a lot of resourses and effort to make, be it many vegetables, fermented products like cheese or meats. Hopefully at seeing this, people will more encouraged to choose the less enviromental costly alternatives or at least be less wastefull with food.
I loved cheese, but became extremely lactose intolerant to the point that it's not worth it. There are many vegan cheese options to choose from, and as a former skeptic, they are much better than most people think they will be.
@Holger Jakobs Why, if she had already found a solution? And why take pills to eat something that isn't meant for you in the first place? Cows milk is for calves and not for humans. No wonder people have problems digesting it - not your Mom, not your milk. It's that simple.
@@HolgerJakobs unfortunately lactaid does not always work, and can result in 10+ hours of suffering when it doesn't. In my case no amount of it will stop me from getting sick from any liquid form of dairy, even ice cream. But you're right, there are certain harder cheeses that are typically easier or even okay to eat for those with lactose intolerance, but there are those who are sensitive enough that they can't even do that. One of the more extreme sensitivies I've come across was someone who couldn't even have the flavoring on doritos.
@Jay January Vio Heubach was not talking about ownership, but intention, "isn't meant for you" were their exact words. The milk is made for baby cows to digest, not adult humans. If you think you can eat anything just because you own it then I recommend you stay away from your cleaning supplies cabinet.
0:15 Challenge accepted : Dish which goes completely wrong. 1. Cheese with Cantonese steam deep sea fish w sliced green onion and ginger. 2. Cheese with both green & red carrot & pig bone hot soup. 3. Cheese with Fish maw/Ginseng & Chicken hot soup. 3. Cheese with Hainan Chicken rice. 4. Cheese with Thai boat noodles. 5. Cheese w Vietnamese Pho w beef... & the list goes on and on.
Not only do I agree, I actually think there are only a few dishes that do go well with cheese. Pizza and some kinds of pasta, and certainly not with *any* kind of cheese. Perhaps burgers too, though I'm not a burger lover so I can't say. In fact I mostly prefer eating cheese on its own, preferably with wine. Also heard similar opinions from people who count as real cheese gourmands.
@@ilyakutsevalov For me to reduce carbon footprint, it's just follow the tradition and eat the animal from head to toes as my mum told. That's the most helpful way to reduce a great chuck of waste. Don't just eat the meat, We also have Chicken feet, Pig lungs soup, Pig blood pudding, Pig feet w ginger soup, Pig intestines for quick fix on the street, Chicken testicles for hot pot, Cow tongue for barbeque etc
The video could have gone much further than just emissions and water use (btw I don’t know how could they calculate such low water footprint for animal cheese). It doesn’t talk about land use. It doesn’t talk about caseomorphines in casein linking to the same neuroreceptors as morphine does, being the reason why we are kind of addicted to cheese. It doesn’t talk about the various ways it’s unhealthy to grownup humans, in contrast to the healthier nut-based cheeses. And it doesn’t talk about the ethically abhorrent process intrinsic to dairy industry (search here the 5min video “Dairy is scary”).
Cocoa, sugar, coffee, and many other plant-based foods also have active substances in them which work on our receptors, and are more potent than cheese. Wine, marijuana, tobacco are even more potent & potentially more habit forming. Frankly, I've never heard of a 'cheese addiction', except among connoisseurs.
Is It really fair to keep counting water and carbon footprint for foods? To put this in scale, how much of the water and land used by the cows would be eaten and drunk if the animals were free to roam? How much is just the total impact of producing and processing cheese (even at a more industrial level) compared to everything else, from its own transportation on the streets to the production of clothes, cars or smartphones? I don't get the comparison made between these cheeses, it seems overly simplistic in a way. I'd love for more thoroughs research to be explained in the video clearly. Edit: From one of the sources down there it seems whey protein powder has double the carbon footprint of cheese!
It's obvious to me that numbers are always quoted as a zero sum. Ie the animals are considered as eliminated from emissions, so obviously from the planet. Replaced by tractors and farm machinery or the native grass consumers such as deer would be a safe assumption. All emitters of course that's why the numbers never make sense.
Yeah came to comment same. Food contributes to say 25% of carbon emissions. Even if 10% people decide to give up on high carbon footprint foods watching these videos that's 2.5%, in reality it would be less than 1%. There should be policy changes for industries, not asking people to give up cheese. Imagine repairing ozone layer, if in 90s they were preaching not to buy refrigerator rather than putting complete ban on CFC
Kurzgesagt just posted a video about this topic a couple days ago. For the same level of animal consumption, free ranging cows consume much more resources than agriculture fed cows on factory farms (which are inherently cruel).
Mozzarella ist besser für die Natur als Parmesan? Versuche mal 250 g Mozzarella zu essen oder 250 g Parmesan. Du wirst merken, dass die 250 g Mozzarella gut rutschen, 250 g Parmesan zu fressen ist jedoch eine tatsächliche Aufgabe. Also ist dieser Vergleich eine tatsächliche Milchmädchenrechnung. Wer lachen musste bitte hier liken.👍
The real problem lies not with the cheese, but rather the commercialization of everything. The companies just start producing way too much of anything that they think they can cash on.
Good Video, there are two things I wonder. The first being one I have wondered for ages. How does CO2 production from cattle herds compare to historical levels of wild bovids? I mean look at the historical bison herd on the american plains that numbered into the millions, how different is a bisons production compared to a cows? The second question that comes to mind, is transportation of the cashews (for example) coming from the otherside of the planet, what is the difference in CO2 procudtion between a local cow and a planeload of nuts?
Cows mainly produce methane which is a greenhouse gas that has a far greater (worse) impact on the climate in comparison to carbon dioxide. The fact that we have developed a system where we breed billions of cows, and other creatures, into existence for commercial purposes obviously leads to more greenhouse gas emissions compared to what the wildlife produce. Secondly, the entire sector of animal agriculture alone produces more of these harmful gases than the whole transportation sector combined, meaning all planes, buses, trains and cars etc. Even the production of something such as cashews and transporting it across the globe would be a more sustainable option in terms of the climate. There are, of course, other factors that need to be taken into consideration as well, but animal products have a tendency to be the worst. One of the best options would be to opt for locally and ethically grown/produced plants or crops and use these as replacements for the climate harsh products in our daily life.
@@DeviousAsHell have you got a lead where I can go read more... I can't find anything that suggests domestic megafuana produce more than wild megafuana... And the current America cattle herd is equivalent in biomass to the historical bison herds... So I would be keen to read more info if you could point me in that direction
@@chrisoldnall2364 Can you provide the info that says the biomass is the same as in history? Are you accounting for all the cows around the world that are bred into existence? That's a lot more than America my friend.
To address your first question, I think one of the biggest problems is that these animals historically fed on grass, whereas bovine today mainly feed on corn (and potentially soy). To address your second question, I concur with @Lotzerking's answer above. When I've seen graphs of carbon impact of food, transport is there but it's not nearly as significant as you'd think (apologies that I can't think of a chart at the moment illustrating that).
I eat cheese partly as a protein source. Dairy cheese is about 7g of protein per slice. When I look at vegan cheeses, they are typically 0g or 1g of protein per slice.
How does the cows ability to turn carbon-containing greens into fertilisers as a carbon sink compare to the methane they emit? Wondering if maybe that somewhat cancels out their GWP, since cows need a lot of vegetation.
Depends on the farming system. A rotationally grazing, grassfed ranch can work that carbon back into the soil, but factory farms, where the majority of dairy comes from, the manure actually becomes a pollutant, seeping into waterways and groundwater, and emitting methane as its sits around in 'waste lagoons'. A good 12% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions is from manure - it's a source of pollution, not a sink!
I think you need 3 to 4 l of sheep milk for a kilogram of cheese, compared to 10 l for the cow's. If you add on that if the cows are kept in farms, and the sheep are grassfed, it might be environmently better to go for sheep's cheese.
@@Dr.Gehrig But those can be offset against soil carbon sequestration. It all depends how you look at it. That is why relying on a single metric to determine whether or not a product is environmentally friendly is not a good idea.
Cows can also be grass-fed. Also the 90% of the cheese making process, they whey, is actually not wasted. It can be used in other products or used to feed animals.
I wouldn‘t say that cashews are the best example, but in general shipping isn‘t the big emitter because cargo ships are pretty damn efficient. The big problem is that animals eat more than they produce because they need something to live off. Thats the big disadvantage, you can‘t fix. And in industrialized countries only a small minority of animals is raised on land thats not fit for agriculture. And even then the land my be better used for carbon absorbing forests as well.
Food only accounts for a tiny proportion of GHG emissions of food. For example it's only 0.5% of beef's emissions. Shipping fruits/vegetables/nuts whatever from all across the world is indeed less emitting than locally sourced animal foods.
Yes, transport only counts for 6% of food emissions. The important thing is land use and land use used for crops. Look up Oxford's Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek study 'Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers'
Hello! Biological engineer here! I’m actually doing research on a filter which uses compost from farms and a certain microorganism to convert the methane from cows into CO2 which is 34x less potent to the atmosphere and can even be captured by biochars also made from on site materials (like sawdust) to capture the CO2. Quite cool :)
@@pleasefeedmewaxworms Do you maybe happen to know how often it is used? And whether it's cheaper or more expensive, and whether maybe in "traditional" cheeses it wouldn't be seen as an abomination or sth? That's just my guess, I don't know much about it :)
You don't need cows to make cheese. The American company Perfect Day manufacturers chemically identical whey using microbes and other companies turn it into cheese.
OK I see it's actually cream cheese (not exactly the European idea of cheese, but there's certainly a wide pool of potential consumers worldwide). I would prefer solutions that come out of fields rather than labs, but I guess we need the widest possible set of tools to fight climate change. So thanks for the information!
On a side note, it's a pity (a disgrace, actually) that the manufacturer refers to 'traditional' production methods. There's nothing traditional about mass-produced dairy products. Confusing the two plans only help people in labs further fuel the idea of 'progress' involving technology. (an idea that comes with its dangers, when you consider that three quarters of the world's food is still produced by small farmers, at the end of the day, meaning that 'traditional' is still the most effective way).
I'm curious how it balances out when you take quantity eaten vs strength of flavor into account. Yes a matured cheese like parmesan has a higher carbon footprint per kg, but you need much less if it than say mozzerella. The numbers on oats vs cashews and almonds were eye-popping!
Oat milk looks like they are made using tons of oat because that's the purest form of the ingredients used for the final product. You didn't see the huge amount of animal feeds that the animal consumed for their entire life before they could be milked for their milk to be sold off for human to consume. You didn't see all the forest destroyed to grow these feeds, you didn't see the pesticide used over and over again in those land to grow those feeds and you didn't see all those clean water wasted to grow those feeds. If we put side by side, the amount of water, land, pesticides and feeds used for cow's milk vs oat milk. You could clearly see that cow's milk used way way more than oat milk.
What is bad for the planet is the industrial farming. If we focused on pasture grazing rather than feed lots we would actually get negative carbon emissions. As far as water usage, that is only a problem in areas that are short on water. In California it is a problem to have animals that consume so much, but in the eastern USA or in Western Europe it is not a problem at all. Also, healthy pastures aid in the land's water retention, as opposed to the mono-culture annual crops that our agriculture is based on now.
Hi Torome86, maybe you'd be interested in the following videos we did about the topics of agriculture and water usage. Take a look here and let us know what you think: "Agroforestry: A solution to farming’s biggest problems?" ua-cam.com/video/cfvYL-Acyec/v-deo.html "How companies are profiting from the water crisis" ua-cam.com/video/eABuoaf0Vbs/v-deo.html
Yeah I'm really torn on this. I've been vegetarian for 19 years, and I support the environmental reasons for reducing the use of animal products, but I love milk and cheese. Although I also enjoy soy milk, no plant-based milk and cheese alternatives truly taste like cow milk & cheese. Come on food scientists, I'm sure you can come up with a solution.
I was a vegetarian for two and a half years until I switched to veganism. It may seem difficult, but it's much better and healthier. You just have to get used to it. There are lots of alternatives to cheeses! I'll tell you a secret: It's not that complicated to make delicious cheese substitutes at home! There are so many recipes online that make it easy! Don't wait until someone makes this move for you, do it yourself!
Ceratinly! There are many food scientists who are searching for alternatives, like milk (that later can be used to make products like cheese) that is produced by yeast in biorreactors (well to be more accuarate they produce casein that is the main protein in milk, and necesary to make cheese, and from there they make the milk). Thou a current problem is that they are expensive (as there aren't currrently companies that produce it at mass scale), and also GMO (which many people are uncrofortble with). A copanies which produces it is "Perfect Day" and I think there are also studies backed by "Ben & Jerry's" to make dairy products from that casein.
I was vegetarian for 27 years. There is absolutely no edible alternative to cows milk or cheese. You have to either enjoy those or give up and quit pretending ha ha. The vegan 'milk' and 'cheese' is vile. 😎
@@TitoTimTravels sucks for you lol. I don't know where you are from in the world, but in my country (Israel), there are quantities of amazing vegan cheeses😳 And they are so delicious! Why exploit poor animals? And support the meat industry (vegetarians still support the meat industry because of the male calves that are sent for slaughter)? I would rather consume my "vile" soy milk and my "vile" cashew cheese than be vile and unscrupulous like you🥰😘💅
Most of the land used to graze cattle is not easily usable for food crops and the majority of the food that they eat is agricultural waste and grasses that are not suitable as human food.
The alternative to cheese is just not eating cheese! I used to be a lover of butter, but now I have olive oil on bread and butter has come to seem too too rich.
Per passenger per hour a plane puts out 90kg of co2. I'd take my entire bodyweight in cheese over a european holiday any day. Or an average car creates 1kg of co2 per 5km. If you bike walk or transit for 15km you can have a whole kilo of cheese. The real issue is societal normalisation of car culture over the past 100 years.
Miyokos oatmilk cheddar!! It's the most nutritionally complete vegan cheese I've come across in the states. I wish it was in more places than Whole Foods :)
I'm a little surprised that they didn't elaborate on the 'liquid called rennet' - it's an enzyme that is derived from the lining of a calf's stomach. That is, a calf is killed for veal, and its stomach lining is processed into rennet to coagulate cheese. The enzymes are specific to the milk of the animal species, so a goat milk cheese would need rennet from a kid's stomach, etc. Lower-quality rennet can be derived from GMO microbes or from certain plants, but the fanciest cheeses all use animal rennet.
People shouldn't freak out about cheese alternatives. Before I sopped eating meat, eggs and dairy most of the cheese I used was as an ingredient like parmesan. mozzarella, cream cheese, cheddar, etc. The vegan alternatives (most) work just fine as replacements. Our American diet sucks - we don't eat a lot of good cheese but we smother everything we can with cheap processed cheese until our first heart attack. Most of that could be replaced. I'm really intrigued by these stand alone cheese alternatives - I really miss blue cheese, manchego, smoked gouda, brie....
Thanks for the pointer! We actually mentioned the land use in the following video about 2 min in: ua-cam.com/video/XTmrwLB80Zs/v-deo.html - let us know what you think in the comments section!
Alan Savory, Ernest Gotsch, Fazenda da Toca. Please look out for the work these guys are doing. Using animals can actualy put more carbon in the ground than what the cows farts!!! For real, please look out for them.
problem isn't eating cheese the problem isn't making cheese the problem is how those animals are being stored in unnatural environments. where the greenhouse gases are stored up to one small area which obviously would make it more of an issues. cattle who are raised on grassland free range pastured do not have the same effects to cattle were raised in massive cattle ranches.
More important should be the impact to animals. One uses and abused them, before killing them off. It also keeps them constantly pregnant and kills the babies. (If this makes you uncomfortable, don’t even look into how they keep them pregnant) The other doesn’t involve animals at all, and thus, does not use, abuse, or murder them. It’s clear that vegan cheese is the only option we should be using.
Exactly what's the environment if we haven't the consciousness of the animals? Their happiness matters bad well. Imagine being forced to live their lives...
The latter will depend on how the plants are grown and harvested. Any process that involves widely destroying the plant (see the coconut oil industry) will be bad for any animals trying to live in and around those plants. Then there's the fact that farming tends to be done in monocultures (seasonally if rotations are in use), which isn't good for wildlife. And habitats are often destroyed to make more room for these monocultures as demand increases. This isn't to say that the meat and dairy industry don't share the same problems, but refraining from animal products alone doesn't reduce animal suffering. It just reduces the suffering of domestic animals.
Cream cheese because you can use it in sweet and savory dishes. I would invest in cream cheese alternatives 🤷🏼♂️ I only drink oat milk and have oat milk yoghurt but I have never seen oat milk cream cheese 🤷🏼♂️
The magic ingredient is water. Milk has a lot of it and most of it doesn't end up in the finished cheese. Cashews on the other hand are soaked in a lot of water in the process of making that milk-like ingredient for the cheese making. Thus it is mostly a matter of adding or subtracting water.
Thank you for the clarification,@@jannejurmu5923! In the past, Ajit, who is one of our reporters, did a piece about which milk is the most climate-friendly. You can watch it here: ua-cam.com/video/3bTUXaNsQJQ/v-deo.html
Come on man.. cheese is not the worst thing for the environment. There are lots of veg products that consume absolutely insane amounts of water of natural resources. At least cheese and milk are somewhat locally made, while nuts are harvested in harsh conditions and transported all around the world before it gets to the end user.
There is no way the vegan cheeses are using more resources (for example, water), than real cheeses. And, we have to start thinking about the animals first and then the environment.
Missing the fact that Cows don't all have to produce methane-it's diet dependent, and the health issues assorted to soy (canola) oil in the alternative. I don't like that those health issues exist, but, though not advertised or well known, it appears to be the case in each study.
Instead of all this number crunching and cultivating guilt feel, we should focus more on REDUCING WASTAGE from local to global levels. IMO that's where the real problem and also solutions lie. 🙂👍
@@climatechangedoesntbargain9140 yes, of course won't change anything as whole global economy is based on more and more consumption and most of the end users don't suffer the consequences most of the times so it's my personal opinion to reduce waste at every level possible. 👍
Are you aware tho, that normal cheese is 3-5 times more nutritious? So it's great if you have less emissions per cheese you eat, but if you have to eat 3-5 of them to get the same nutrition out of it, i think that's one of the most important factors you simply ignore ✌️
its not about the end product its about how the farm grows it. pasture raised is not degrading the soil if done correctly which is what matters most. mono-culture cashew and oat(and all other mono-culture) farms are a big problem, killing the soil. Permaculture is the only way, mixed fields rebuild diversity, sequester carbon, treat animals humanely feeding them from nature, constantly produce seasonal product, take much less work and we benefit from the abundance created through strategy and planning. #SaveSoil #SaveOurSoil 60 years to no food outdoors, do the right thing, support farms that do it right (look up Polyface farms and others using Joel Salatins grass/cattle/chicken management methods)
When examining the ecology of the farm and measuring the impact of animals in the environment, you cannot do that without including what the soils and plants are doing for the planet in terms of CO2 and methane. Without these figures, your study is worthless.
Also when it comes to use of water, I'm not sure this includes the water needed to produce plants that are feed for the animals we exploit for milk. All in all, no animal options are sustainable or ecological
The biggest issue with carbon emissions from agriculture and food production is the commercialisation of it, for example a local village having a few cows would only produce cheese for their little township and age it in a natural cellar, which is very different from the process outlines here
Mangos and Strawberries can never be improved by cheese. I'm even going down this route and say no fruit can be improved by adding cheese, but to be completely honest I never tried it!
Pretty sure there is moldy cheese that can improve them. Someone wrote cheese can't improve cereal and I don't think there is a cheese that would so, cheese doesn't improve everything.
My favorite comes from New Roots. Awesome cream cheese and even a delicious vegan fondue. Also Nussmesan is interesting for Pasta dishes. I love cheese but the impact is high plus morally it’s wrong to force a cow into a milk production machine and take away her calves.
You guys mentioned that growing cashews takes land and water. Great that cows dont drink... oh yeah they do. And they eat, to produce it you again need ton of water. I wonder why you skipped that part.
Yeah given the environmental footprint of the dairy industry, we may need to start regulating dairy products like we do tobacco and alcohol. A climate tax is a good start.
Don’t get me wrong I’ve been a cheese fanatic my whole life. My dad grew me up on cheese testing and cheese fests. But to be really honest the more I see onto eco content and animal cruelty I start to resent my cheese addiction. I’ve recently started my non-dairy/ meat journey. I’ve actually become lactose intolerant from all the dairy consumption over the years. And I had complications a few months ago from it. My tummy felt like it was rupturing for 2 days. That’s when I decided to be cautious. I still have cheat days and it’s still a little hard for me to let go of chocolate and cheese especially because my family is Mexican. But I know that it’s necessary for me, my health and the plant. We’ve been taught that cheese is amazing for us but in reality most of the population is lactose intolerant.
Same man that’s why I been vegan for a while. I do still get some here and there to feed the addiction but overall I barely do it anymore thanks to having good non animal related food
Cheese often doesn't have lactose in it. We need ethical farming, not to give up on one of the greatest reasons for living, which is to eat. Everything in moderation, and you can take the cheese out of my cold dead hands.
@@Commandosoap777 RIGHT! My mother felt bad for me for a while because she thought having no meat or dairy ment a diet with no flavor or 🤮 food but I’ve been giving her some vegan recipes and she’s starting to like them more than what we used to eat! I’m not gonna force anything to eating what I eat but I think it’s good if people AT LEASE gave it a try. I still eat meat on special occasions like anniversary’s etc. But I think people just have to be a lot more open to new things. And since vegan alternatives aren’t the original they have to try way harder to taste good,meaning there’s a lot more verity of spices and ingredients in them making them tastier!
@@drewfeld836 actually for me even the smallest but of lactose is a bad for me. I know my body best and I know what I’d does to me. And plus my journey has actually been quite pleasant. Trying new things is the joy in life.
One thing to consider looking into with cows milk, depending on where they're farmed is the land they're on. Outdoor dairy farms run on a rotation of paddocks which means that a good chunk of the time most of the land is growing grass, also dairy are more likely to have trees scattered throughout the farm as it provides good shelter for the animals, this becomes an obstruction on crop farms and usually something not taken into account as it differs so much from farm to farm
I would say that with the amount of water that vegan cheeses use, they are as bad or worse for the environment as regular cheeses. There really isn't any winning here.
I agree, the externalized environmental costs (green house gases, water) are important to consider. But so is forcing millions of cows into a miserable existence, and then ending their lives violently when they aren't profitable anymore. I know that's harder to quantify than emissions and water used, but it can't be ignored.
There are much worse sources of emissions than cows! Please check out eg...YANSA youtube sites....and other sustainable farming, how to get back to creating real soil...instead of dirt....pasturing animaks is crucial part of true ecosystem.....
@@BCSTS My point was exactly that the environmental cost is big but in my eyes not as important as externalized cost of suffering pushed onto the animals. They never opted into the arrangement. As for a "true ecosystem", it's only ethical in my opinion if those pasturing animals aren't killed, force bred or otherwise exploited.
I appreciate this overview, but I think you did a bit of a disservice leaving out the humane effects of milk cheese. Industrial milk farming (and even smaller scale farming) subjects millions of cows to extremely horrific conditions for the entirety of their lives. There are an estimated 250 million cows producing milk right now. It's not just a matter of greenhouse emissions, it's the mass torture of millions of intelligent, innocent, and docile creatures.
Even before the invention of microscopes societies knew importance of microbes and utilized in curd and cheese making. Cheese are Amongest best sources of b complex vitamins producing bacteria present in intestines of cattle specially cow.
I have a couple of questions: Does the water that cashew trees need to grow have to be potable, or can it be river/pond/greywater? How much carbon are those trees (or any other tree nut that can be made into milk) sequestering? I've not tried any vegan cheese alternatives, so I know nothing about them, really...can you make cheddar, and mozzarella, and brie and parmesan, and so forth?
Two things: 1) Isn't it rather unsanitary to be handling cheese without gloves? Even just leaning over the vat of cheese and talking could cause tiny bits of spit to fly into it? But moreso the gloves thing, for sure. You compare the first half of the video with regular cow milk, with the process for cashews, where they're wearing gloves and masks. 2) While I understand sheep milk causing larger emissions, does it not balance out by the fact that they also provide wool, which can be used in fabrics?
Hi, thanks for the questions. 1.) The reason our reporter isn't wearing gloves in some of the shots is that they had to wash and sanitize each time they entered a room. 2.) Great question! As this video shows, we only looked at the environmental impacts of the milk (2:33) and milk alternatives (07:09). If we were to expand this study then we would definitely take other products into consideration, i.e. meat, leather, cat & dog food, gelatine.
While it provided byproducts for human to consume, other materials like Cotton or Plastics actually consumed less carbon emission, less water and less land to grow. What we need to remember is the fact that the Sheep needed food and water to survive, for a very long time by the way. To produce such minuscule returns in goods for us humans to consume
@@nntflow7058 Cotton is actually very water intensive. That's the reason why the Aral Sea is mostly gone... the rivers feeding it have been diverted to grow cotton. In Australia, we have problems with a river basin with high water use by cotton & almond plantations, often leaving little water left for downstream...
"It's not the cow, it's the how". Cows pastured in the right fashion contribute to CO2 reduction and sequestration into the soil. Cows segregated and fed with cereals are the problem. We have the knowhow and the science, we should only apply them!
The latest Kurzgesagt video debunks exactly this myth. Cows can't produce usable meat and dairy while living on grass alone, it's not sufficiently calorie-dense. Factory-farmed animals, as sad as their existence may be, actually have a lower carbon footprint per kilogram of end product because they waste less energy moving around and such, while their other needs are met in a more efficient fashion because they're concentrated in a small area.
The channel What I've Learned debunks the dairy industry as a significant source of pollution or water waste, in his video on how eating meat affects the planet. We should be much more worried about wasted food, which decomposes and produces much more methane than cows ever could.
@@sanjaymatsuda4504 Are, you kidding me? I lived in a farm all my life, I can't bear pointless statements as " Cows can't produce usable meat and dairy while living on grass alone". Cows, bisons, even elephants thrived for millions of years on grass alone. North American prairies sustained 60 MILLIONS buffaloes before european arrival. Tell the herds of Serengeti they cannot live on grass only! :-D
Meanwhile, cheese helped us to evolve and it s very good, not that hard to keep it, very versatile in taste. In Europe we have a lot of types of cheese. In Romania we eat a lot of telemea which is a fresh salty, crumbly chesse. We also have cascaval which it need more time to stay, and other types. The chesse in Italy and France are amazing, too. Chesse is in our European culture and daily life and it s the best in every form and taste. Thats why most europeans are strong and tall. In Romania we can still find small farms, or family from the countryside for more natural, clean, bio, no industrial: eggs, cheese, meat, vegetables, etc, at a resonable price. Or to just eat the bio/eco food from the supermarket :) ua-cam.com/video/QKae1k1BDdA/v-deo.html
Which cheese, or cheese alternatives, are your favourite?
*Appenzeller* 🇨🇭
Cheese, Nothing can replace the love for cheese
Unfortunately I never found a vegan cheese alternative that comes close to real cheese to top a pizza. Perhaps one day we will be able to get lab grown milk to get some veg cheese that tastes like the real thing
Follow Your Heart has good cheese alternatives fasho
@@feliscatus2074 Nothing will ever be able to replace the real deal!
a video about eggs will also be great
The carbon footprint of eggs is relatively low, way below the meat and even below cheese and fish. Rather closer to the vegetables (although not quite the same).
@@raduungureanu2080 lol really? only chicken is target then 🐔🍗 ?
@@sachin2842 ckickens are much more efficient than cows, meaning they have to eat much less to grow
@@Karim94222 yeas..
@@sachin2842 they were talking about eggs, a chicken can produce a lot of eggs, if you raise chickens to eat them, the carbon footprint is probably much higher!
does american cheese count as cheese or cheese alternative?
I think American cheese count as a plastic alternative
@@TheAvsouto 😂
🤣aaaah!!
neither d:
Wait, I eat American cheese almost everyday.....Real cheese is very, very expensive..
I think we all agree on that the best step overall is to reduce our consumption of everything, pay attention to expire dates, dont waste food
Actually pay less attention to expiration dates and instead school your senses if a food product is still consumable instead of throwing it away on a specific day while it may last a couple of more days.
In my experience also helps a lot to regulate your diate in a way that you can more easily plan out what you need to buy without letting any food go to waste. For that to work though you need to prepare your meals yourself, instead of eating in a cantine or a restaurant.
@@kinngrimm Senses can be misleading. I have histamine intolerance. I can tell you for a fact that food that is not fresh still tastes great but it is just not the same. Many people are capable of digesting older stuff without consequences - good for them. However, dates are important for many people. I think better planning is certainly the way to go. However, I will disagree about cantines and restaurants. It is clear that cooking a meal for hundreds of people is much more efficient in terms of ingredients and water per person than cooking a meal for just one or two people. Also, you don't run the risk of buying stuff and suddenly not finding the time to cook it because something came up.
@@kinngrimm I think he means just make sure you eat the food before it expires.
Cool subject, but i certainly think you can include more criterias than just water usage and carbon footprint. The fact that male cows are killed in milk producing farms can influence some choices, and also the social impact of growing cashews could have been discussed. I have seen some documentation on how cashews harvesters get their hands burned while peeling the cashews.
The most important impacts here are not due to cheese producers but to the ingredients before, which is what i think you should have visited and questioned (we saw a bit of the farm but not enough on their process and animal care in my opinion)
I think the documentations about cashew harvesters getting burned are from India? The world's largest cashew exporter is Vietnam, and there the process of cashew processing is already automated by large.
I completely agree that the discussion was a little myopic for such a complex issue. I hope they do a broader dive at some point so people can make more informed decisions
@@rashminable The number one issue humanity is facing is carbon footprint. That's why this is the main thing he is looking at.
I think the documentary purposefully aimed to adress the ecological footprint only so as to not deter the demographic of people that care about climate change, but simply aren't as passionate about animal welfare. People aren't all equally empathetic but we need *everyone* to work together to make these much needed changes.
also, I don't think he counted the amount of water the cows drink or the water needed for the crops the cow eats.
Cashew has massive problems way beyond it's carbon footprint. The cashew industry is terrible, poorly regulated and exploitive. The mostly women and girls who process the cashew nuts get skin conditions from the toxic fluid in the nuts and repeat exposure have caused some women to lose fingers. I started avoiding cashews after I found out.
Many of the problems with cheese, are similar to the problems of industrial beef. Most of those problems can be solved or managed by using regenerative techniques. Currently, we have no idea of how low or carbon neutral or possibly carbon negative a dairy operation might go in a properly designed system. Until we know that, we should be trying to build those well designed regenerative systems and not be trying to make some major societal dietary changeover. Mass conversion away from long standing traditional foods, for a novel dietary fad, could cause unforeseen consequences that leave us in a worse spot than we were in before.
But why try to build sustainable ways to exploit animals instead accepting that animal agriculture is bad for everyone, including the animals that are killed and all animals that inhabit this planet. Even if we can make animal products sustainable we are still exploiting animals unecessarily and feeding people unhealthy food.
Calling it dietary fad when billions of people in the world have been vegetarian for thousands of years seems disingenuous.
Also, I agree, lac-grown meat or milk/cheese is a good thing to do. But you need more than a single solution for human diet in the future when we finally stretched the earth resources to the brink.
@@axelkvarnstrom1826 meat is not inhenrently unhealthy, meat can be ethical and not be exploitation in a sense that things eating other things is just the process of life
@@thetieguy4961 I would argue that exploiting animals can't be ethical, because of the fact that it is completely unnecessary. A good athical framwork should be based on minimizing suffering where it isn't necessary.Of course I wouldn't blame a lion for eating an antilope but we don't have to consume meat, and are therefore causing uncessesary suffering .
@@axelkvarnstrom1826 one could argue that meat consumption is necessary for survival (of the society as a whole) and that overall it cause less suffering then a full plant based diet (that is hard to produce when it comes to fur filling all the dietery needs). Full vegan would be so damaging for the environment that it would kill more animals overall
I just want to also point out another dilemma of cashew, labor-intensive and it most cases, workers don't have a conducive working environment and receive low pay
Cashews are INCREDIBLY destructive. I mean, we're basically clearing out immensely biodiverse, pristine forests at tropical locations and calling them cruelty-free alternatives? When we could do some sustainable grazing which actually sequesters carbon and creates biodiverse environments, integrating animals into landscapes, here at home? Cashews are a perfect example of how, with the best of intentions, people might actually be increasing their ecological footprint, plus environment destruction and the destruction of biodiversity. We urgently need to have conversations about this. Monocultures are the problem (including in support of current animal products, of course). Monocultures cannot be the solution.
Hi there! For our vegan cheese alternatives, we made sure that the working conditions for all workers are fair and save. That's why the cashews we use for our production are being opened by machines. :)
@@dr.mannahs4454 that's commendable. To be honest, however, I still can't quite make out how sourcing cashews from the other side of the world (and with an expanding market, that means clearing pristine forests that are irreplaceable ecosystems), could be more sustainable than having goats graze inside sustainably managed land on this side of the world. Goats feed on anything, even briars. That's another thing I'd like to have a conversation on.
@@dr.mannahs4454 using machines deny potential income for the least privileged though
@@Ardoxsho The number one cause of biodiversity loss and deforestation is animal agriculture. Stop trying to act like cashews are ruining the environment to promote your little grazing fantasy.
The real contributor to pollution (80%) is the fossil fuel industry and all the others dependent on it. I get that cows produce alot of emissions too, but even if we get rid of all the beef and cow lactates consumption we'd still be in deep trouble by 2100.
Just another diversion likely spread by the fossil fuel industry. It's the "personal carbon footprint" all over again. (Was introduced by BP in a marketing campaign to shift blame to consumers)
You are totally correct. Also a lot of calculations of various products include transport costs by plane and truck. If rail was used instead transport footprint would be cut by 80-95%. Governments worldwide need to invest into rail infrastructure as the greenest transport. And stop subsidising fossil fuel obviously.
You never talked about the new, new kid on the block: Remilk. It's a company that uses bacteria to produce milk proteins and then turned into dairy products. If you want clean milk that is just like the real thing, go for that.
Is it becoming big-scale?
@@jollyjokress3852 They are hoping to become larger, it's a startup company at the moment.
what do the bacteria eat?
@@max_kl Usually sugar or short carbon chains such as ethanol. Not sure in this application though.
I really hope they succeed for the sake of the planet because I and many people's consumption of cheese is bringing more harm to the planet than eating 🍖. Mind due lot of people still can't even afford cheese, yet
This is only really correct for factory farming, not regenerative farming (which can be done at scale, but requires a lot of land, of which we have a lot in the US at least). The water issue is not an issue on traditional or regenerative farms as its all green water anyways and would otherwise be in the environment unused. The carbon foot print is also offset or entirely eliminated in those farms, so really the message should be, convert factory farming into sustainable farming. A lot if not all of these issues would go away.
Thank you for this awesome video. As a land-use scientist, one thing i will point out is your point about vegan cheese crops needing more water to grow than cheese is highly misleading. Cheese production itself might not need that much water, but the imbedded water to grow the crops to feed the cow and to hydrate the cow would be far greater compared to the vegan cheese crops. Overall, vegan cheese will always be orders of magnitude better in terms of water, emissions and animal welfare (yes even cashew and almond cheese). I think it's also important to talk about how consumer goods can be exploitative to labourers. The cheese makers you visited all seem like ethical and sustainable businesses, but there are obviously lots of problems with farmers exploiting labourers to pick their crops and to raise animals on factory farms. Overall, less labour is required for vegan cheeses as well, which is why I choose vegan cheeses every time yet avoid cashews.
fun fact: all the water used to make cheese does not vanish into another dimension. it goes in the "water cycle"
This is what I got from the video:
Living is bad for the environment, please stop.
the swiss invented a suicide pod for that reason lmao
Did the dutch study consider logistical inpact of cheese ingredients?
I feel like milk from like 100 km away needs a lot less co2 than cashews from vietnam.
You are underestimating the transport impact over sea travel. It is quiet marvelous how much you can transport (slowly) with so little emissions while burning the worst kind of oil.
You would be wrong.
Damn, lots of comments here that are quite on the defensive. Really enjoyed the video. I feel like having these conversations are good to have (about how things that we can take for granted affect the environment) as they give insight into something that people haven't really thought about.
I feel like if as a society we're able to treat foods that have a high environmental cost as luxury foods, and consume them only on special occasions, it would reduce the strain on the environment and help towards having a sustainable food system.
Looking forward to what else you put out!
It's not sustainable if we're using someone else to do the work and die for it. I am talking about animals used to produce milk in the first place be it cows or goats.
Yes! As someone who is currently studing Food Industries, it pains me how easily people throw away food that takes a lot of resourses and effort to make, be it many vegetables, fermented products like cheese or meats. Hopefully at seeing this, people will more encouraged to choose the less enviromental costly alternatives or at least be less wastefull with food.
I loved cheese, but became extremely lactose intolerant to the point that it's not worth it. There are many vegan cheese options to choose from, and as a former skeptic, they are much better than most people think they will be.
2 solutions:
Take a lactate pill before eating something containing lactose.
Eat hard cheese, its lactose has been eaten by the microbes.
@Holger Jakobs
Why, if she had already found a solution? And why take pills to eat something that isn't meant for you in the first place? Cows milk is for calves and not for humans. No wonder people have problems digesting it - not your Mom, not your milk. It's that simple.
@@HolgerJakobs unfortunately lactaid does not always work, and can result in 10+ hours of suffering when it doesn't. In my case no amount of it will stop me from getting sick from any liquid form of dairy, even ice cream. But you're right, there are certain harder cheeses that are typically easier or even okay to eat for those with lactose intolerance, but there are those who are sensitive enough that they can't even do that. One of the more extreme sensitivies I've come across was someone who couldn't even have the flavoring on doritos.
@Jay January Vio Heubach was not talking about ownership, but intention, "isn't meant for you" were their exact words. The milk is made for baby cows to digest, not adult humans. If you think you can eat anything just because you own it then I recommend you stay away from your cleaning supplies cabinet.
@@MrHoneuma Have you considered that it might be the proteins in milk causing an allergic reaction instead of lactose?
0:15 Challenge accepted : Dish which goes completely wrong.
1. Cheese with Cantonese steam deep sea fish w sliced green onion and ginger.
2. Cheese with both green & red carrot & pig bone hot soup.
3. Cheese with Fish maw/Ginseng & Chicken hot soup.
3. Cheese with Hainan Chicken rice.
4. Cheese with Thai boat noodles.
5. Cheese w Vietnamese Pho w beef...
& the list goes on and on.
Not only do I agree, I actually think there are only a few dishes that do go well with cheese. Pizza and some kinds of pasta, and certainly not with *any* kind of cheese. Perhaps burgers too, though I'm not a burger lover so I can't say. In fact I mostly prefer eating cheese on its own, preferably with wine. Also heard similar opinions from people who count as real cheese gourmands.
@@ilyakutsevalov For me to reduce carbon footprint, it's just follow the tradition and eat the animal from head to toes as my mum told. That's the most helpful way to reduce a great chuck of waste. Don't just eat the meat, We also have Chicken feet, Pig lungs soup, Pig blood pudding, Pig feet w ginger soup, Pig intestines for quick fix on the street, Chicken testicles for hot pot, Cow tongue for barbeque etc
The video could have gone much further than just emissions and water use (btw I don’t know how could they calculate such low water footprint for animal cheese).
It doesn’t talk about land use.
It doesn’t talk about caseomorphines in casein linking to the same neuroreceptors as morphine does, being the reason why we are kind of addicted to cheese.
It doesn’t talk about the various ways it’s unhealthy to grownup humans, in contrast to the healthier nut-based cheeses.
And it doesn’t talk about the ethically abhorrent process intrinsic to dairy industry (search here the 5min video “Dairy is scary”).
you lowkey look like Mr.Bean
you seem to be too focused on how bad animal cheese is, but how much do you know about preparing cashews?
Billions of people across the world are not addicted to cheese. So I guess we all could get away from this addiction.
Cocoa, sugar, coffee, and many other plant-based foods also have active substances in them which work on our receptors, and are more potent than cheese. Wine, marijuana, tobacco are even more potent & potentially more habit forming.
Frankly, I've never heard of a 'cheese addiction', except among connoisseurs.
Is It really fair to keep counting water and carbon footprint for foods? To put this in scale, how much of the water and land used by the cows would be eaten and drunk if the animals were free to roam? How much is just the total impact of producing and processing cheese (even at a more industrial level) compared to everything else, from its own transportation on the streets to the production of clothes, cars or smartphones?
I don't get the comparison made between these cheeses, it seems overly simplistic in a way. I'd love for more thoroughs research to be explained in the video clearly.
Edit:
From one of the sources down there it seems whey protein powder has double the carbon footprint of cheese!
Hope there's smart people that can answer your questions cause I'm also curious now
It's obvious to me that numbers are always quoted as a zero sum. Ie the animals are considered as eliminated from emissions, so obviously from the planet. Replaced by tractors and farm machinery or the native grass consumers such as deer would be a safe assumption. All emitters of course that's why the numbers never make sense.
Yeah came to comment same. Food contributes to say 25% of carbon emissions. Even if 10% people decide to give up on high carbon footprint foods watching these videos that's 2.5%, in reality it would be less than 1%. There should be policy changes for industries, not asking people to give up cheese. Imagine repairing ozone layer, if in 90s they were preaching not to buy refrigerator rather than putting complete ban on CFC
Kurzgesagt just posted a video about this topic a couple days ago. For the same level of animal consumption, free ranging cows consume much more resources than agriculture fed cows on factory farms (which are inherently cruel).
@@graybeard4962 But they also pee and poop which puts water back into the cycle and fertilizes the land
Mozzarella ist besser für die Natur als Parmesan? Versuche mal 250 g Mozzarella zu essen oder 250 g Parmesan. Du wirst merken, dass die 250 g Mozzarella gut rutschen, 250 g Parmesan zu fressen ist jedoch eine tatsächliche Aufgabe. Also ist dieser Vergleich eine tatsächliche Milchmädchenrechnung. Wer lachen musste bitte hier liken.👍
The real problem lies not with the cheese, but rather the commercialization of everything. The companies just start producing way too much of anything that they think they can cash on.
Cows themselves are extremely polluting. Unless we can change the genetics of cows, the production isn’t really the problem.
*production is only partly the problem. Not the entire.
People want it, companies produce it, simple
Cheese can't improve pineapples!
How is cheese and pineapple in the same sentence
It's so common in cottage cheese they sell it prepackaged.
Unless you like pizza with pineapple in it...
Good Video, there are two things I wonder. The first being one I have wondered for ages. How does CO2 production from cattle herds compare to historical levels of wild bovids? I mean look at the historical bison herd on the american plains that numbered into the millions, how different is a bisons production compared to a cows?
The second question that comes to mind, is transportation of the cashews (for example) coming from the otherside of the planet, what is the difference in CO2 procudtion between a local cow and a planeload of nuts?
Sadly transportation only is a small part in emissions because cargo ships are really efficient because of their size.
Cows mainly produce methane which is a greenhouse gas that has a far greater (worse) impact on the climate in comparison to carbon dioxide. The fact that we have developed a system where we breed billions of cows, and other creatures, into existence for commercial purposes obviously leads to more greenhouse gas emissions compared to what the wildlife produce. Secondly, the entire sector of animal agriculture alone produces more of these harmful gases than the whole transportation sector combined, meaning all planes, buses, trains and cars etc. Even the production of something such as cashews and transporting it across the globe would be a more sustainable option in terms of the climate. There are, of course, other factors that need to be taken into consideration as well, but animal products have a tendency to be the worst. One of the best options would be to opt for locally and ethically grown/produced plants or crops and use these as replacements for the climate harsh products in our daily life.
@@DeviousAsHell have you got a lead where I can go read more... I can't find anything that suggests domestic megafuana produce more than wild megafuana... And the current America cattle herd is equivalent in biomass to the historical bison herds... So I would be keen to read more info if you could point me in that direction
@@chrisoldnall2364 Can you provide the info that says the biomass is the same as in history? Are you accounting for all the cows around the world that are bred into existence? That's a lot more than America my friend.
To address your first question, I think one of the biggest problems is that these animals historically fed on grass, whereas bovine today mainly feed on corn (and potentially soy). To address your second question, I concur with @Lotzerking's answer above. When I've seen graphs of carbon impact of food, transport is there but it's not nearly as significant as you'd think (apologies that I can't think of a chart at the moment illustrating that).
"Name a dish that it can't improve" Okay, *lists every dessert*
One minor issue - methane doesn't last in the atmosphere, it breaks down .. where as co² (from fossil fuels ) is cumulative ,
It doesn't last as long as Co2 in the atmosphere but it still lasts long enough to heat up the atmosphere due to the huge amount.
when methane breaks down it becomes... CO2. It doesn't just disappear lol.
I eat cheese partly as a protein source. Dairy cheese is about 7g of protein per slice.
When I look at vegan cheeses, they are typically 0g or 1g of protein per slice.
It's also a goof provider of fats. 😎👍
There are many other good sources of protein. Check tofu for example. More protein per calorie than beef.
How does the cows ability to turn carbon-containing greens into fertilisers as a carbon sink compare to the methane they emit?
Wondering if maybe that somewhat cancels out their GWP, since cows need a lot of vegetation.
It doesn't, they generally eat grass and soya that has grown on fetilized soil so there's really no benefit there.
Depends on the farming system. A rotationally grazing, grassfed ranch can work that carbon back into the soil, but factory farms, where the majority of dairy comes from, the manure actually becomes a pollutant, seeping into waterways and groundwater, and emitting methane as its sits around in 'waste lagoons'. A good 12% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions is from manure - it's a source of pollution, not a sink!
I think you need 3 to 4 l of sheep milk for a kilogram of cheese, compared to 10 l for the cow's. If you add on that if the cows are kept in farms, and the sheep are grassfed, it might be environmently better to go for sheep's cheese.
@@Dr.Gehrig But those can be offset against soil carbon sequestration. It all depends how you look at it. That is why relying on a single metric to determine whether or not a product is environmentally friendly is not a good idea.
Cows can also be grass-fed. Also the 90% of the cheese making process, they whey, is actually not wasted. It can be used in other products or used to feed animals.
Am I supposed to believe that growing cashews in Vietnam+ shipping them to Germany is more eco-friendly than cheese made from local dairy farms? 😅
For climate change, yes😉😂
I wouldn‘t say that cashews are the best example, but in general shipping isn‘t the big emitter because cargo ships are pretty damn efficient. The big problem is that animals eat more than they produce because they need something to live off. Thats the big disadvantage, you can‘t fix. And in industrialized countries only a small minority of animals is raised on land thats not fit for agriculture. And even then the land my be better used for carbon absorbing forests as well.
yes if the food for the animals in your local dairy farms are imported.
Food only accounts for a tiny proportion of GHG emissions of food. For example it's only 0.5% of beef's emissions. Shipping fruits/vegetables/nuts whatever from all across the world is indeed less emitting than locally sourced animal foods.
Yes, transport only counts for 6% of food emissions. The important thing is land use and land use used for crops. Look up Oxford's Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek study 'Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers'
Hello! Biological engineer here! I’m actually doing research on a filter which uses compost from farms and a certain microorganism to convert the methane from cows into CO2 which is 34x less potent to the atmosphere and can even be captured by biochars also made from on site materials (like sawdust) to capture the CO2. Quite cool :)
do it boy! sounds wonderful :D
How It Is going the project?
Interesting how you left out where rennet comes from (calf intestines...). Many cheeses aren't even vegetarian.
THAT. I found out about this only several weeks ago. If somebody doesnt want to eat animals, most cheeses are a no no.
@@TheCrimsonPope vegetable rennet is a thing.
@@pleasefeedmewaxworms Do you maybe happen to know how often it is used? And whether it's cheaper or more expensive, and whether maybe in "traditional" cheeses it wouldn't be seen as an abomination or sth? That's just my guess, I don't know much about it :)
You don't need cows to make cheese. The American company Perfect Day manufacturers chemically identical whey using microbes and other companies turn it into cheese.
True
and what's their carbon footprint?
@@Ardoxsho "Perfect Day reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 91% and up to 97% compared to traditional production methods."
OK I see it's actually cream cheese (not exactly the European idea of cheese, but there's certainly a wide pool of potential consumers worldwide). I would prefer solutions that come out of fields rather than labs, but I guess we need the widest possible set of tools to fight climate change. So thanks for the information!
On a side note, it's a pity (a disgrace, actually) that the manufacturer refers to 'traditional' production methods. There's nothing traditional about mass-produced dairy products. Confusing the two plans only help people in labs further fuel the idea of 'progress' involving technology. (an idea that comes with its dangers, when you consider that three quarters of the world's food is still produced by small farmers, at the end of the day, meaning that 'traditional' is still the most effective way).
I'm curious how it balances out when you take quantity eaten vs strength of flavor into account. Yes a matured cheese like parmesan has a higher carbon footprint per kg, but you need much less if it than say mozzerella.
The numbers on oats vs cashews and almonds were eye-popping!
You need to think about their protein mass per 100 grams, thats what matters
@@mattynayzerya9167 depends on the reason why you consume it
Yeah it's easy to eat few hundred grams of meat in one meal, but it's not common to eat that much cheese
Oat milk looks like they are made using tons of oat because that's the purest form of the ingredients used for the final product.
You didn't see the huge amount of animal feeds that the animal consumed for their entire life before they could be milked for their milk to be sold off for human to consume. You didn't see all the forest destroyed to grow these feeds, you didn't see the pesticide used over and over again in those land to grow those feeds and you didn't see all those clean water wasted to grow those feeds.
If we put side by side, the amount of water, land, pesticides and feeds used for cow's milk vs oat milk. You could clearly see that cow's milk used way way more than oat milk.
@@nntflow7058 but the oat doesnt cosume water land and pesticides?.....
I'm 2 years dairy free now in the US.
I do not miss cheese. There are so many tasty plant based recipes that don't require any cows' milk.
What is bad for the planet is the industrial farming. If we focused on pasture grazing rather than feed lots we would actually get negative carbon emissions. As far as water usage, that is only a problem in areas that are short on water. In California it is a problem to have animals that consume so much, but in the eastern USA or in Western Europe it is not a problem at all. Also, healthy pastures aid in the land's water retention, as opposed to the mono-culture annual crops that our agriculture is based on now.
Hi Torome86, maybe you'd be interested in the following videos we did about the topics of agriculture and water usage. Take a look here and let us know what you think:
"Agroforestry: A solution to farming’s biggest problems?" ua-cam.com/video/cfvYL-Acyec/v-deo.html
"How companies are profiting from the water crisis" ua-cam.com/video/eABuoaf0Vbs/v-deo.html
Yeah I'm really torn on this. I've been vegetarian for 19 years, and I support the environmental reasons for reducing the use of animal products, but I love milk and cheese. Although I also enjoy soy milk, no plant-based milk and cheese alternatives truly taste like cow milk & cheese. Come on food scientists, I'm sure you can come up with a solution.
I was a vegetarian for two and a half years until I switched to veganism. It may seem difficult, but it's much better and healthier. You just have to get used to it. There are lots of alternatives to cheeses! I'll tell you a secret: It's not that complicated to make delicious cheese substitutes at home! There are so many recipes online that make it easy!
Don't wait until someone makes this move for you, do it yourself!
Ceratinly! There are many food scientists who are searching for alternatives, like milk (that later can be used to make products like cheese) that is produced by yeast in biorreactors (well to be more accuarate they produce casein that is the main protein in milk, and necesary to make cheese, and from there they make the milk). Thou a current problem is that they are expensive (as there aren't currrently companies that produce it at mass scale), and also GMO (which many people are uncrofortble with). A copanies which produces it is "Perfect Day" and I think there are also studies backed by "Ben & Jerry's" to make dairy products from that casein.
I was vegetarian for 27 years. There is absolutely no edible alternative to cows milk or cheese. You have to either enjoy those or give up and quit pretending ha ha. The vegan 'milk' and 'cheese' is vile. 😎
@@TitoTimTravels sucks for you lol. I don't know where you are from in the world, but in my country (Israel), there are quantities of amazing vegan cheeses😳 And they are so delicious! Why exploit poor animals? And support the meat industry (vegetarians still support the meat industry because of the male calves that are sent for slaughter)?
I would rather consume my "vile" soy milk and my "vile" cashew cheese than be vile and unscrupulous like you🥰😘💅
@@TitoTimTravels I wouldn't say it's vile. It's just different but the real versions just taste so good that It's incredibly difficult to give them up
Most of the land used to graze cattle is not easily usable for food crops and the majority of the food that they eat is agricultural waste and grasses that are not suitable as human food.
Do not try cheese alternatives based on coconut oil. The only way to describe the taste is "soul crushing".
The alternative to cheese is just not eating cheese!
I used to be a lover of butter, but now I have olive oil on bread and butter has come to seem too too rich.
Per passenger per hour a plane puts out 90kg of co2. I'd take my entire bodyweight in cheese over a european holiday any day.
Or an average car creates 1kg of co2 per 5km. If you bike walk or transit for 15km you can have a whole kilo of cheese.
The real issue is societal normalisation of car culture over the past 100 years.
Miyokos oatmilk cheddar!! It's the most nutritionally complete vegan cheese I've come across in the states. I wish it was in more places than Whole Foods :)
But it's horrible.
I'm a little surprised that they didn't elaborate on the 'liquid called rennet' - it's an enzyme that is derived from the lining of a calf's stomach. That is, a calf is killed for veal, and its stomach lining is processed into rennet to coagulate cheese. The enzymes are specific to the milk of the animal species, so a goat milk cheese would need rennet from a kid's stomach, etc.
Lower-quality rennet can be derived from GMO microbes or from certain plants, but the fanciest cheeses all use animal rennet.
For people with lactose intolerance, this cheese alternative will also be very interesting☺️☺️☺️
I’d rather die than live without cheese.
😭😭😭😭 I can't give it up it was hard enough to lower my beef consumption 😭😭😭😭😭
People shouldn't freak out about cheese alternatives. Before I sopped eating meat, eggs and dairy most of the cheese I used was as an ingredient like parmesan. mozzarella, cream cheese, cheddar, etc. The vegan alternatives (most) work just fine as replacements. Our American diet sucks - we don't eat a lot of good cheese but we smother everything we can with cheap processed cheese until our first heart attack. Most of that could be replaced. I'm really intrigued by these stand alone cheese alternatives - I really miss blue cheese, manchego, smoked gouda, brie....
Show the land use, this is one of the most important metrics because we can reforest free land which stores loads of carbon.
Thanks for the pointer! We actually mentioned the land use in the following video about 2 min in: ua-cam.com/video/XTmrwLB80Zs/v-deo.html - let us know what you think in the comments section!
1. Stop eating meat.
2. Stop eating cheese.
...
N. Stop eating.
Hench why they want us to die. It's good for the planet.
Alan Savory, Ernest Gotsch, Fazenda da Toca. Please look out for the work these guys are doing. Using animals can actualy put more carbon in the ground than what the cows farts!!! For real, please look out for them.
yes keep telling that to yourself...
Goes hand in hand with you paying $100/Kg for your meaty treats
problem isn't eating cheese the problem isn't making cheese the problem is how those animals are being stored in unnatural environments. where the greenhouse gases are stored up to one small area which obviously would make it more of an issues. cattle who are raised on grassland free range pastured do not have the same effects to cattle were raised in massive cattle ranches.
More important should be the impact to animals. One uses and abused them, before killing them off. It also keeps them constantly pregnant and kills the babies. (If this makes you uncomfortable, don’t even look into how they keep them pregnant) The other doesn’t involve animals at all, and thus, does not use, abuse, or murder them. It’s clear that vegan cheese is the only option we should be using.
Exactly what's the environment if we haven't the consciousness of the animals? Their happiness matters bad well. Imagine being forced to live their lives...
The latter will depend on how the plants are grown and harvested. Any process that involves widely destroying the plant (see the coconut oil industry) will be bad for any animals trying to live in and around those plants. Then there's the fact that farming tends to be done in monocultures (seasonally if rotations are in use), which isn't good for wildlife. And habitats are often destroyed to make more room for these monocultures as demand increases.
This isn't to say that the meat and dairy industry don't share the same problems, but refraining from animal products alone doesn't reduce animal suffering. It just reduces the suffering of domestic animals.
Cream cheese because you can use it in sweet and savory dishes. I would invest in cream cheese alternatives 🤷🏼♂️
I only drink oat milk and have oat milk yoghurt but I have never seen oat milk cream cheese 🤷🏼♂️
we have a few brands of oat-based cream cheese in german supermarkets, they're pretty good
@@girlemployee yeah found oatly cream cheese too 👍
How can 05 kg turn to 1kg? What am i missing cause that sounds like straight up magic
The magic ingredient is water. Milk has a lot of it and most of it doesn't end up in the finished cheese. Cashews on the other hand are soaked in a lot of water in the process of making that milk-like ingredient for the cheese making. Thus it is mostly a matter of adding or subtracting water.
Thank you for the clarification,@@jannejurmu5923!
In the past, Ajit, who is one of our reporters, did a piece about which milk is the most climate-friendly.
You can watch it here: ua-cam.com/video/3bTUXaNsQJQ/v-deo.html
Another research suggestion: how much water it takes to produce a head of salad. You’d be surprised
Come on man.. cheese is not the worst thing for the environment. There are lots of veg products that consume absolutely insane amounts of water of natural resources. At least cheese and milk are somewhat locally made, while nuts are harvested in harsh conditions and transported all around the world before it gets to the end user.
Google and others are working on lab-grown meat, so I wonder if they're working on growing cheeses, too?
There’s Lab grown milk that can turn into all dairy products…
There is no way the vegan cheeses are using more resources (for example, water), than real cheeses.
And, we have to start thinking about the animals first and then the environment.
The problem is commercial farming. We no longer farm ethically and even if we did would be hard imo to meet global requirements for cheese.
Farming animals (exploiting their bodies) has never been ethical. Factory farming is only the exaggeration of something that is wrong to begin with.
Missing the fact that Cows don't all have to produce methane-it's diet dependent, and the health issues assorted to soy (canola) oil in the alternative.
I don't like that those health issues exist, but, though not advertised or well known, it appears to be the case in each study.
how do you distinguish between the co2 of milk and co2 of the meat?
What we need is more water and more CO2 capture. Stop harassing the cows.
I found my favourite vegan cheese from Wilmerburger, the hearty version. It's delicious on dark bread 😋
Instead of all this number crunching and cultivating guilt feel, we should focus more on REDUCING WASTAGE from local to global levels. IMO that's where the real problem and also solutions lie. 🙂👍
Won't solve green house gas emissions
@@climatechangedoesntbargain9140 yes, of course won't change anything as whole global economy is based on more and more consumption and most of the end users don't suffer the consequences most of the times so it's my personal opinion to reduce waste at every level possible. 👍
Are you aware tho, that normal cheese is 3-5 times more nutritious? So it's great if you have less emissions per cheese you eat, but if you have to eat 3-5 of them to get the same nutrition out of it, i think that's one of the most important factors you simply ignore ✌️
I'm watching this while eating a 4 cheese pizza
After all this time, one thing is certain: should people like you gain enough power, we would starve.
its not about the end product its about how the farm grows it. pasture raised is not degrading the soil if done correctly which is what matters most. mono-culture cashew and oat(and all other mono-culture) farms are a big problem, killing the soil. Permaculture is the only way, mixed fields rebuild diversity, sequester carbon, treat animals humanely feeding them from nature, constantly produce seasonal product, take much less work and we benefit from the abundance created through strategy and planning. #SaveSoil #SaveOurSoil 60 years to no food outdoors, do the right thing, support farms that do it right (look up Polyface farms and others using Joel Salatins grass/cattle/chicken management methods)
Great video! Here in Brazil we find potato cheese in the supermarket and it's pretty good... I bet it's quite efficient, just like oat cheese.
Never heard of potato cheese. I want to try that.
And the dairy industry feeds in to the veal industry; something I have been battling myself with since going veggie 22 years ago.
When examining the ecology of the farm and measuring the impact of animals in the environment, you cannot do that without including what the soils and plants are doing for the planet in terms of CO2 and methane. Without these figures, your study is worthless.
Also when it comes to use of water, I'm not sure this includes the water needed to produce plants that are feed for the animals we exploit for milk. All in all, no animal options are sustainable or ecological
The biggest issue with carbon emissions from agriculture and food production is the commercialisation of it, for example a local village having a few cows would only produce cheese for their little township and age it in a natural cellar, which is very different from the process outlines here
When they said cheese improves every dish the first thing that came to my mind was “Cheese doesn’t improve Cereal .
Does grits count as a hot cereal like oatmeal does? Cause cheese grits 🤤
@@yippehanako To be honest, mud would improve grits. I was raised in the South and always despised grits ha ha. 😎
thank you, i was looking for that answer.
Mangos and Strawberries can never be improved by cheese. I'm even going down this route and say no fruit can be improved by adding cheese, but to be completely honest I never tried it!
Yeah, they are better on their own.
Pretty sure there is moldy cheese that can improve them. Someone wrote cheese can't improve cereal and I don't think there is a cheese that would so, cheese doesn't improve everything.
Oh also Ricotta goes pretty well with everything that ends with berries.
Strawberry Cheesecake + any other fruit
Apple and cheese
Cranberries and Cheese
Pears and cheese
Cheese in an apple pie
Cottage cheese and pineapple
My favorite comes from New Roots. Awesome cream cheese and even a delicious vegan fondue. Also Nussmesan is interesting for Pasta dishes. I love cheese but the impact is high plus morally it’s wrong to force a cow into a milk production machine and take away her calves.
Collect the methane farts for further use. Problem solved.
Very underwhelming for a DW doc
There's way more that should've been discussed
You guys mentioned that growing cashews takes land and water. Great that cows dont drink... oh yeah they do. And they eat, to produce it you again need ton of water. I wonder why you skipped that part.
Dairy is scary
Yeah given the environmental footprint of the dairy industry, we may need to start regulating dairy products like we do tobacco and alcohol. A climate tax is a good start.
You're crazy! Leave my cheese alone! 🧀
You got a point
Far worse in methane production is the decomposing wasted food filling our landfills. We need to reduce food waste fast
How about holiday flight tax? Emission form it is terrible
@@ricekim4381 an air travel tax sounds good
I wanne try that cashew cheese product. Whats the company been called?
I am quite impressed by his english. I wouldnt have guessed he is from Berlin by his clean accent :o
Don’t get me wrong I’ve been a cheese fanatic my whole life. My dad grew me up on cheese testing and cheese fests. But to be really honest the more I see onto eco content and animal cruelty I start to resent my cheese addiction. I’ve recently started my non-dairy/ meat journey. I’ve actually become lactose intolerant from all the dairy consumption over the years. And I had complications a few months ago from it. My tummy felt like it was rupturing for 2 days. That’s when I decided to be cautious. I still have cheat days and it’s still a little hard for me to let go of chocolate and cheese especially because my family is Mexican. But I know that it’s necessary for me, my health and the plant. We’ve been taught that cheese is amazing for us but in reality most of the population is lactose intolerant.
Same man that’s why I been vegan for a while. I do still get some here and there to feed the addiction but overall I barely do it anymore thanks to having good non animal related food
Cheese often doesn't have lactose in it. We need ethical farming, not to give up on one of the greatest reasons for living, which is to eat.
Everything in moderation, and you can take the cheese out of my cold dead hands.
Just choose lower lactose dairy options. Its that simple.
@@Commandosoap777 RIGHT! My mother felt bad for me for a while because she thought having no meat or dairy ment a diet with no flavor or 🤮 food but I’ve been giving her some vegan recipes and she’s starting to like them more than what we used to eat! I’m not gonna force anything to eating what I eat but I think it’s good if people AT LEASE gave it a try. I still eat meat on special occasions like anniversary’s etc. But I think people just have to be a lot more open to new things. And since vegan alternatives aren’t the original they have to try way harder to taste good,meaning there’s a lot more verity of spices and ingredients in them making them tastier!
@@drewfeld836 actually for me even the smallest but of lactose is a bad for me. I know my body best and I know what I’d does to me. And plus my journey has actually been quite pleasant. Trying new things is the joy in life.
One thing to consider looking into with cows milk, depending on where they're farmed is the land they're on. Outdoor dairy farms run on a rotation of paddocks which means that a good chunk of the time most of the land is growing grass, also dairy are more likely to have trees scattered throughout the farm as it provides good shelter for the animals, this becomes an obstruction on crop farms and usually something not taken into account as it differs so much from farm to farm
I would say that with the amount of water that vegan cheeses use, they are as bad or worse for the environment as regular cheeses. There really isn't any winning here.
0:15 DW: "Name a dish cheese can't improve"
Me: (gets immediately and utterly disappointed with the presenter)
I agree, the externalized environmental costs (green house gases, water) are important to consider. But so is forcing millions of cows into a miserable existence, and then ending their lives violently when they aren't profitable anymore. I know that's harder to quantify than emissions and water used, but it can't be ignored.
There are much worse sources of emissions than cows! Please check out eg...YANSA youtube sites....and other sustainable farming, how to get back to creating real soil...instead of dirt....pasturing animaks is crucial part of true ecosystem.....
@@BCSTS My point was exactly that the environmental cost is big but in my eyes not as important as externalized cost of suffering pushed onto the animals. They never opted into the arrangement.
As for a "true ecosystem", it's only ethical in my opinion if those pasturing animals aren't killed, force bred or otherwise exploited.
Challenge accepted. Yakunikku, sushi, borstj, goulash, ribs and ofal sausage. None go with cheese.
I appreciate this overview, but I think you did a bit of a disservice leaving out the humane effects of milk cheese. Industrial milk farming (and even smaller scale farming) subjects millions of cows to extremely horrific conditions for the entirety of their lives. There are an estimated 250 million cows producing milk right now. It's not just a matter of greenhouse emissions, it's the mass torture of millions of intelligent, innocent, and docile creatures.
Even before the invention of microscopes societies knew importance of microbes and utilized in curd and cheese making. Cheese are Amongest best sources of b complex vitamins producing bacteria present in intestines of cattle specially cow.
And the war on agriculture continues!
I have a couple of questions:
Does the water that cashew trees need to grow have to be potable, or can it be river/pond/greywater?
How much carbon are those trees (or any other tree nut that can be made into milk) sequestering?
I've not tried any vegan cheese alternatives, so I know nothing about them, really...can you make cheddar, and mozzarella, and brie and parmesan, and so forth?
I would prefer the orginal milk based cheese over their vegan alternative.
What about all those feedlot used for feeding these huge cows?
Don't worry. If there's a planet A there has to be a Planet B. I learned that in elementary.
France got 367 types of cheeses is hard to see this documentary
Two things:
1) Isn't it rather unsanitary to be handling cheese without gloves? Even just leaning over the vat of cheese and talking could cause tiny bits of spit to fly into it? But moreso the gloves thing, for sure. You compare the first half of the video with regular cow milk, with the process for cashews, where they're wearing gloves and masks.
2) While I understand sheep milk causing larger emissions, does it not balance out by the fact that they also provide wool, which can be used in fabrics?
Hi, thanks for the questions.
1.) The reason our reporter isn't wearing gloves in some of the shots is that they had to wash and sanitize each time they entered a room.
2.) Great question! As this video shows, we only looked at the environmental impacts of the milk (2:33) and milk alternatives (07:09). If we were to expand this study then we would definitely take other products into consideration, i.e. meat, leather, cat & dog food, gelatine.
While it provided byproducts for human to consume, other materials like Cotton or Plastics actually consumed less carbon emission, less water and less land to grow.
What we need to remember is the fact that the Sheep needed food and water to survive, for a very long time by the way. To produce such minuscule returns in goods for us humans to consume
@@nntflow7058 Cotton is actually very water intensive. That's the reason why the Aral Sea is mostly gone... the rivers feeding it have been diverted to grow cotton. In Australia, we have problems with a river basin with high water use by cotton & almond plantations, often leaving little water left for downstream...
Sheep milk cheese require less amount of milk compared to cow milk so the difference in the emissions is low
Reading about the dairy process in Hareri's Sapiens book put me off.
"It's not the cow, it's the how". Cows pastured in the right fashion contribute to CO2 reduction and sequestration into the soil. Cows segregated and fed with cereals are the problem. We have the knowhow and the science, we should only apply them!
The latest Kurzgesagt video debunks exactly this myth. Cows can't produce usable meat and dairy while living on grass alone, it's not sufficiently calorie-dense. Factory-farmed animals, as sad as their existence may be, actually have a lower carbon footprint per kilogram of end product because they waste less energy moving around and such, while their other needs are met in a more efficient fashion because they're concentrated in a small area.
The channel What I've Learned debunks the dairy industry as a significant source of pollution or water waste, in his video on how eating meat affects the planet. We should be much more worried about wasted food, which decomposes and produces much more methane than cows ever could.
@@aliceh5289it is important to learn from different sources and not to hang on the one that fits your narrative
@@akgakg2426 Certainly, & by watching this video I get a different perspective. I don't believe it addresses WIL's points, though.
@@sanjaymatsuda4504 Are, you kidding me? I lived in a farm all my life, I can't bear pointless statements as " Cows can't produce usable meat and dairy while living on grass alone". Cows, bisons, even elephants thrived for millions of years on grass alone. North American prairies sustained 60 MILLIONS buffaloes before european arrival. Tell the herds of Serengeti they cannot live on grass only! :-D
I saw a news item a while ago about a kind of seaweed that can be added to cattle feed which cuts down on cows belching and farting.
It was in the Guardian newspaper 18/3/2021. Apparently it reduces methane by 80+ percent.
Meanwhile, cheese helped us to evolve and it s very good, not that hard to keep it, very versatile in taste. In Europe we have a lot of types of cheese. In Romania we eat a lot of telemea which is a fresh salty, crumbly chesse. We also have cascaval which it need more time to stay, and other types. The chesse in Italy and France are amazing, too. Chesse is in our European culture and daily life and it s the best in every form and taste. Thats why most europeans are strong and tall. In Romania we can still find small farms, or family from the countryside for more natural, clean, bio, no industrial: eggs, cheese, meat, vegetables, etc, at a resonable price. Or to just eat the bio/eco food from the supermarket :)
ua-cam.com/video/QKae1k1BDdA/v-deo.html