Almond milk is a popular alternative to dairy milk, but is it eco-friendly?

Is Almond Milk Bad for the Environment?

But back to the almond milk because, as you might have read, it has its own issues.

a collage featuring a container of almond milk with a question mark made of almonds beside it

Photo:Getty Images. EatingWell collage.

It does produce among the fewest greenhouse gases among milks (plant-based or dairy).

And it requires less land than dairy.

But those delicious little nuts takea lotof water to grow.

Get this: just one almond needs around 3.2 gallons of water.

The Bottom Line

So do Iand youneed to give up almond milk?

Its a little complicated.

And it beats out all of them except rice milk in terms of land use.

However, it does require more water than other nondairy milks.

plant-based milks - statistics & facts.

US EPA.Agriculture and Aquaculture: Food for Thought.

Poore J and Nemecek T.Reducing foods environmental impacts through producers and consumers.Science, vol.

6392, 1 June 2018, pp.

987992,www.science.org/doi/10.1126

Fulton J, Norton M, and Shilling F.Water-indexed benefits and impacts of California almonds.