Celebrating the worldwide switch from dairy to dairy alternatives, World Plant Milk Day 2019 will be observed this Thursday, August 22nd.
Founded in 2017 by Plant-Based News and established as a partnership with ProVeg in 2018, the campaign has attracted millions of people around the world and helped to accelerate the transition from dairy milk to plant-based alternatives.
Several organizations and companies in the plant milk space have joined the celebration this year to bring to light how plant-based milk is better for the planet, for our health and for the health and well-being of the animals with whom we share this earth. Organizations such as Veganuary, PETA, Mercy For Animals, The Humane League and The Vegan Society are partners in the project and plant-based milk companies are also celebrating World Plant Milk Day as well. Macadamia nut-based milk company milkadamia recently embarked on the two-week-long “14 Reasons Why Moo Is Moot” campaign, each day detailing on their social media channels a different reason why giving up dairy is essential to battle our eco-ills and stem the cruelty inflicted on farm animals around the world.
To say that the last two years have not been kind to the dairy industry is an understatement. As they watch more and more consumers shun cow’s milk and make the leap to plant-based alternatives, which replicate the same taste and texture they grew up on with “regular” milk, the industry has unwillingly been thrust into the mainstream media spotlight due in large part to recent undercover videos highlighting the horrors that farm animals endure at Big Dairy factory farms such as Fair Oaks in Indiana. The reaction to videos of cows being horrifically abused was swift and stunning to the dairy industry. In one fell swoop, the mistreatment of farm animals was brought out of the dark and into living rooms across the country and around the world.
The dairy industry had already been watching its market share in the beverage sector decline. 2018 revenue plunged by an estimated $1.1 billion and 2019 figures look to mirror, if not exceed, that fall-off, especially with the public relations nightmare that videos from farms such as Fair Oaks
and Nature Prairie in Texas have caused. These videos depicting the abuse that cows suffer on these farms have been widely reported on local and network news programs, reaching a wider audience than ever before.
Meanwhile, the Plant Based Food Association estimates that sales of dairy alternatives grew nearly 10% in 2018 and several companies in the plant-based space have had trouble keeping up with consumer demand. One of the keys to this success has been the decision by retailers to move plant-based milk to the dairy case instead of relegating them to separate sections of the store.
Hoping to expand on this massive growth, World Plant Milk Day details a variety of ways that average consumers can get involved, such as taking the 7 Day Dairy-Free Challenge, spreading the word about the benefits of plant-based dairy on social media, and asking coffee shops to add plant milks to their menus and to offer it without a surcharge.
You can find out more about World Plant Milk Day and how to get involved at https://www.worldplantmilkday.com/
Featured image: cows on a dairy farm in Israel. Image credit Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals.
