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Marketers have a critical role to play in shifting demand toward greener products—so the thinking goes.
But it’s becoming apparent that the higher-carbon status quo (cow’s milk) isn’t willing to give up market share to plant-based alternatives without a fight. Compounding that, legacy products like cow’s milk often have deeper pockets and a more well-established lobbying apparatus.
“What the milk industry is doing … it’s old fashioned,” said CB Bhattacharya, H.J. Zoffer chair in sustainability and ethics at the University of Pittsburgh. “With increasing consumer awareness of the impact of animals on climate change, I don’t think it’s going to stick. It’s, of course, David versus Goliath.”
As brands like Oatly convert more dairy drinkers to oat-based alternatives, industry groups like the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) and the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) are firing back with campaigns targeting alternatives. How people respond indicates the role that sustainability-focused brands and advertisers can play in reducing demand-side carbon emissions.
Milk vs. plants
Unit sales of plant-based milk—which include alternatives made of soy, grains, nuts or vegetables—grew 19% between 2019 and 2022, according to the Good Food Institute. Milk from animals declined by 4% over the same period, with plant-based alternatives reaching 15% of total market share.
Oatly’s annual sustainability report highlights the emissions savings generated by converting dairy drinkers to oat milk drinkers. The brand helped people avoid 471,047 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions by switching to oat milk by the end of 2022, per the report.
“How can we go beyond selling products and engage people in a conversation about the food system?” asked Oatly chief sustainability officer Ashley Allen. “About why traditional dairy doesn’t work from so many perspectives—from a planetary perspective, from a climate perspective, from a nutrition perspective, from a health perspective—and engage people in that conversation on how plant-based milks can really be the difference?”
Last week, Oatly released a new video in its series, “Will It Swap?,” featuring a cozy supper club in small-town Wisconsin, where a crowd of midwesterners taste The Duck Inn supper club’s menu, with a twist—all of the milk has been subbed out for Oatly.