For those practicing a cruelty-free lifestyle, life can be a series of questions: Why do so many innocent animals continue to suffer and die? Why are animal products still being consumed when the risks of doing so are so well known? And one that really sticks in the throat – why are some vegan options always seemingly way more expensive than non-vegan options? In particular plant-based milks cost more when compared to “regular” dairy milk?
The vegan revolution is here and it’s growing by the day. More and more vegan products are becoming ever more known, readily available, and increasingly consumed.
However, why then are the prices of plant-milks still so high?
Chances are that you’re more than aware that plant-based milks are becoming ever more popular every day. There are a growing number of them out there including:
- Hemp
- Almond
- Coconut
- Soy
- Cashew
- Pea
- Rice
- Oat
- Flax
All of them offer a range of nutrition and health-benefits that regular dairy milk simply can’t compete with. Dairy milk is, for example, laced with cholesterol and evidence is continuing to prove as to its detrimental effect on human health, including inflammation, acne, and even osteoporosis. Dairy milk is also high in saturated fat, which is a major contributing factor to serious medical conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. Dairy milk consumption has also been linked to an increased risk of developing breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers.
Dairy farms across the world are starting to close due to the lack of demand. Unsurprisingly, animal agriculture (aka Big Dairy) doesn’t like this revolution in milk buying habits, not one tiny bit:
“According to the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the sales of milk dropped about $1.1 billion last year; 2018 closed with net sales totaling $13.6 billion, compared to 2017’s $14.7 billion.”
Compare that to the simultaneous growth in demand for plant-based milks:
“In 2017, the market size of dairy alternatives was estimated to be around $11.9 billion, with experts predicting that the number could swell to more than $34 billion by 2024…”
Source (for both set of statistics)
Dairy milk prices in supermarkets around the world suddenly seem to be dropping in price. And not just a few cents here and there, but by the dollar. In stark comparison, plant-based milk of all varieties seems to be noticeably more expensive in comparison. Which of course begs the question, if the demand for plant-based milk is so high, and supply is blossoming, why are they so expensive compared to dairy milk?
One of the hall-marks of the Western world, and the United States in particular, is a pride in the supposed effectiveness of free-market capitalism. The idea being that if something is in demand, any number of suppliers come to the fore, all looking at ways to make their product the best and, crucially, at the best value. Well, that’s the theory at least.
Unfortunately, free-market capitalism doesn’t really take into account that governments like to often-times prop up particular industries and businesses, despite the supposed effectiveness of the free-market system. One of the most blatant ways in which they do that? Subsidies. And the dairy industry in the United States is heavily subsidized, as it is in the rest of the Western world.
Subsidies are grants by our governments to private businesses that are supposed to benefit the public. We, the consumers, end up paying less in the short term, such as cheap dairy milk in our local grocery stores. However, in the long run, we all end up paying more for these subsidized goods because the government funds those payments through the general tax burden.
If you’re asking the question, “But why do governments like to subsidize dairy farmers in the United States and elsewhere?” just keep in mind that there are an awful lot of them out there. In the United States, many of them live in crucial swing states (states that could easily go one way or the other in an election) and those voters are often keen to cast their vote. Both Michigan and Pennsylvania are large-scale dairy milk-producing states, ranking sixth and seventh respectively in terms dairy milk production from 2016 to 2018: Source
It is then no coincidence that both of those states are key electoral battle-grounds at all levels of governance, including Presidential.
The US dairy industry is up to its neck in government subsidies, big style. The numbers involved are certainly not spilled milk to be cried over…
“…in 2015, the American government doled out approximately $22.2 billion dollars in direct and indirect subsidies to the U.S dairy sector.” : Source
The United Kingdom government implements the same practice: Source
Do milk alternative companies receive subsidies? That’s a resounding…………NO!
The dairy milk industry has been subsidized for so long now, with such eye-watering numbers, that it really doesn’t make a difference when it comes to what price they set for their products. The bottom line is – dairy gets a ton of help from the government. Plant-based milk manufacturers do not.
It’s not just the dairy industry. The oil industry, nuclear power companies, coal, corn, cattle, and natural gas suppliers are also all heavily subsidized. It’s an ugly cycle where no one wins except big business. Even the consumers that may think “Yay! Cheap dairy milk” end up paying for it through taxation. The large corporations who regularly and consistently receive these subsidies, gain market advantages by being able to offer lower prices on a daily basis. Small companies and individuals cannot compete in these one-sided markets.
Subsidies really are anathema to free-market economics, but are widely practiced by US administrations of either stripe and have been for the last hundred years or so. And it’s not just the American domestic economy that has become warped by government subsidization. That’s because subsidies in the wealthy countries of the West depress global market prices. That in turn induces poorer countries around the rest of the world to opt for imported goods. Consequently, farmers in poor countries are left with little or no income, or food, because they simply can’t afford to grow it. Eliminating subsidies in just the US alone would immediately take millions of people out of poverty around the world.
From your author’s perspective here in Ohio, I clearly recall milk costing close on $4.00 a gallon not so long ago. It’s presently around $1.69 a gallon. For a long time, the price for a gallon of dairy milk actually hovered around $1.00 gallon and even went as low as 69 cents in this past year.
Another reason for lower dairy milk prices in comparison to plant-based milk is courtesy of the exploitation of dairy producing animals becoming ever more ruthlessly efficient. Dairy cows are of course, despite the best efforts of the marketing arms of the dairy industry to paint a deceptive picture to the contrary, nothing more than commodities to be exploited. The idea of smiling dairy cows in forever sun-dappled fields, endlessly chewing the cud, is one that is a million miles from the truth. The fact that dairy cows are lumped in as being “livestock” (that’s “live” and “stock”) should tell us all we need to know as to the reality of the dairy milk industry.
That same industry is not only ruthless and protective of their lifestyle, but goes hard after anyone (or any company) that threatens their way of doing business. How many lawsuits have been filed against companies calling their plant-milks just that…. milk? How many bills, heavily pushed by lobbyists ($) have been introduced into law to prevent these same companies from using key words as so not to confuse consumers? The dairy industry is scared and rightly so. It’s only a matter of time.
Technological “advances” have allowed for dairy cows to be bred with the potential for ever higher milk yields. As if that Frankenstein state of affairs wasn’t enough, throw in some steroids, antibiotics and a whole host of eye-widening additives in dairy milk, and you really should be thinking long and hard about pouring that all over your morning muesli.
Add to that improved feed for the cow’s production (never their well-being of course, always their production) and this has caused the American dairy industry to go into an overdrive of production. Consequently, dairy milk supply in the US completely outstrips demand. As Wisconsin dairy farmer Gordon Speirs recently put it:
“We are just too damn good at what we do, as an industry…” Source:
Take that massive over-production of milk to a heavily subsidized dairy industry in general, and a nose-dive in dairy milk prices should be no surprise. Conversely, the plant-based milk industry does not operate within those parameters or have the “Frankenstein” effect of ruthless exploitation of innocent sentient beings.
We should though keep in mind that, despite the likes of subsidies and genetic jiggery-pokery with dairy cows and what they eat, informed consumer choice is still a massively potent part of Western consumer capitalism. As awareness continues to grow about veganism and cruelty-free living, it is inevitable that more and more consumers will choose plant-based milks over dairy milk – this is a battle that the dairy industry is inevitably going to lose. Sure, it may take ten years or may take a hundred, but lose they will, despite the government subsidies that are increasingly looking like a tea-spoon attempt to bale out a sinking Titanic.