The truth about cheese

The Environmental Argument

Cheese production has been on a rapid rise since the turn on the century. In 2000, the world produced 15,000,000 tonnes of cheese; we are currently well on track to reach 22,000,000 tonnes this year. It looks like it is only going up as parts of Asia increase their demand for dairy products.

Here in the UK, the cheese market has grown steadily and the market is now 13% bigger than it was in 2000. Even in France, a fanatically cheesey country has increased its consumption by a KG per person since 2015.

Demand for cheese has inevitably increased the global demand for milk, which has doubled since the 1970’s to 800,000,00 tonnes per year.

If you hadn’t heard, we are currently in the midst of a climate crisis, and many people are trying their hardest to reduce their meat consumption. In the UK a third of the population has said that they are planning to either significantly reduce their meat intake or give it up completely.

There are some links between the decrease in demand for meat and an increase in dairy products. Usually there is a tendency to swap meat intake for dairy intake. In the UK, people who don’t eat meat consume more cheese than the average. In 2017, a team at the university of Oxford carried out a survey of nearly 200,000 people with each person labelled and classified by their diet. The categories were meat eaters, poultry eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians and vegans. Each person’s food intake was monitored and recorded in detail. The team found that the highest cheese intake of all the groups was the vegetarians. That is people who don’t eat meat or fish but do eat dairy products. Vegetarians eat an average of 30 grams a day, almost twice as much as their meat-eating counterparts.

This is NOT to say that vegetarians are to blame for the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. What it does tell us though is that giving up on meat is not the end of it. If you have given up or are planning too, maybe take note and carefully plan your cheese intake. There is also a useful chart attached for you to find the least gassy chesses for you to enjoy.  

For some climate change context, according to the UN’s FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) the livestock sector produces 14.5% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle alone are around 66% of it.  Add in other milk producing animals for cheese such as sheep, goats and buffalo it goes to 81%.  

Producing 1KG of beef produces approximately 26KGs of harmful gasses. Other meats such as Pork, Chicken and Fish produce far less, however vegetables are by far the lowest. Milk is the lowest at 1.3Kgs of CO2 equivalent to produce a KG of milk. However, it takes 10 litres of milk to produce 1KG of cheese. It is hard to put a specific footprint on it because each cheese varies especially according to the cows diet in specific countries, however it is around 10KG of CO2 equivalent.

The Animal Welfare Argument

Unfortunately, the environmental impact of cheese is only half of the story as animal welfare is also a concern. So, let’s talk about the hard truth of dairy farming. 

Most dairy cows are born on large dairy farms to mature dairy cows. They are separated from their mothers straight after birth, raised until roughly 18 months old and then just like their mothers, they are artificially inseminated themselves. While this process is underway they are also dehorned, ear tagged and depending on geographical location, their tails are ‘docked’ removing most of it. Generally, this is done without anaesthetic.

Nine-months later, they give birth. Their calves are then taken away and they are straight into milking, usually several times a day. To continue producing milk, the cows must be inseminated at least once a year. At birth, female cows are introduced to the dairy heard, are let out onto pastureland before maturing. Male cows are either killed immediately or are reared for meat at another facility.

An average dairy cows lifespan is 20 years. Most are sent to slaughter after their productivity begins to decline, roughly at 5 years old. One of the reasons for this is that the industry demands more and more milk from these cows. However, the amount we are asking of them is unnatural, usually ending up with the cows being exhausted and physically strained. The result of this is a highly stressful life, which takes its toll on the cows lifespan. The cows are also asked to produce more than it can on its diet, so they are fed on high energy feed and kept indoors to reduce energy expenditure. All of this usually accounts to a shorter lifespan.

The UK has approximately 1.3 million dairy cows while it has approximately 9.92 million cows raised for meat production. Interestingly, dairy farming is the single largest agricultural sector in the UK valued at £3.8 billion, with annual milk production around 13.5 billion litres. This actually accounts for around 17 per cent of the UKs agricultural production by value.

We are however lucky that the UK adheres to strict regulations on animal welfare. For example, the US and Canada are still using ‘tie stalls’ where the cow is restricted to one pen for most of its life. The UK and most of the EU ruled this out a long time ago. We also try to adhere to the “five freedoms” of freedom from: malnutrition, hunger and thirst; fear and distress; physical or thermal discomfort; pain, injury and disease; and freedom to express normal behavioural patterns. The latter not being possible in tie stalls.

All of this evidence provides people with an argument I have been reading about which states that dairy farming is perhaps more cruel to the animal. It endures years of stress and ‘misery’ before being slaughtered. Whereas cattle raised for meat production are largely kept outdoors, and given time with their calves etc. Something to think about at least.

So what is the solution?

For those that are not in the farming know (I’m part of that group) intensive farming is about maximum production at the lowest price. For those concerned about the environmental impact, intensification is the way to go, it reduces land needed for milk production and the feed they use generally reduces their methane production. This however exacerbates the animal welfare issues.

If you are more concerned about the animal welfare side of the case, then the best solution is to try dairy free alternatives to cheese. There are plant based variations of cheese which are mainly made from water, coconut milk and oil, salt and flavourings. The issue is that, outside of them not tasting much like cheese, they are high in salt, with very little protein and high fat levels which provides a question mark over their nutritional value.

Now, dear readers, if you are concerned about both the welfare and environmental side of this issue then you really only have two options. To cut down and choose less impactful cheeses, or to give up your cheese habits completely. Luckily, I have provided a pretty cool graph that indicates the least impactful cheeses for the environmental side issues. For the welfare issues, a link below is for those who can feel slightly better about it all. The Ethical Dairy Farm in Scotland is a great alternative.

Sources and additional reading:

https://www.viva.org.uk/dark-side-dairy/dairy-industry-britain

https://www.riverford.co.uk/aboutus/environment-ethics/whyorganic/what-is-intensive-farming

http://www.theethicaldairy.co.uk/

https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/farm/dairy/keyissues

https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/compassion-in-dairy-farming/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/dairy