#TheOatMilkPhenomon
Hayes T. 8th Grade
You would think that most of Gen Z and a handful of Millennials suddenly become lactose intolerant from the recent phenomenon of oat milk. According to AP News, US oat milk sales grew 131% between May 2020 and May 2021 to $304 million. This is an extreme rise in any market, but especially something as obscure as non-dairy milk. This presents the question if people are trying to do something good for the environment, do they actually like the taste of oat milk, or did someone on their TikTok ‘For you page’ just tell them they do?
The hashtag ‘oat milk’ on Instagram has 428,974 posts, filled with aesthetically pleasing pictures of beautiful latte art and cute coffee shops. When you click on one of these posts, along with the oat milk tag, you will find hashtags like “#savetheplanet”, “#environmentalist”, and more, as they post a picture of their oat milk latte in a plastic Starbucks cup. But the question is, is oat milk even good for the environment? Is it doing anything to switch from your normal Vanilla Frappuccino to an Oat Milk Latte? As it turns out, Oat milk is significantly better than cow’s milk for the environment. According to uqhealthyliving.org, producing oat milk creates 80% less greenhouse gas emissions and 60% less energy. This is an extreme difference, much more than I expected. So maybe it's not the use of oat milk that is the issue; it is the audience supporting it.
Brands like Urban Outfitters, Redbubble, and more, sell graphic t-shirts promoting oat milk, which I find to be hypocritical because both brands are considered fast fashion. Fast fashion is when well-known brands produce inexpensive clothing in response to the latest trends, which results in millions of dollars of clothing in landfills. This presents the question once again, are people just drinking oat milk to join the trend?
“Producing oat milk creates 80% less greenhouse gas emissions and 60% less energy than cow’s milk!!”
So what’s the consensus? Is the trend of oat milk doing more good than bad? The answer is yes and no. Oat Milk itself is a really easy step towards helping the environment, so the milk itself is not the issue; it is how it is marketed and why the audience likes it. Many people choose oat milk to make themselves feel like heroes to the environment, and if these people are doing it right, that’s not a problem. But if these people are throwing their plastic Starbucks cups in the trash after they finish their oat milk latte, then what’s the point? Choosing to drink oat milk is great, but not if you don’t make other efforts to help. If you really want to be an environmental hero, there are a lot of other ways you can help, starting with your coffee order. For example, properly dispose of your cup after you are done, avoid using straws, bring your own reusable cup, or ask for your coffee in a mug if your order is to stay. Doing any or all of these things on top of your oat milk order can help make a change.