Thread by @stephaniequilao

Oat milk costing more than dairy is a false narrative.

Let's start with this. How is raising 9.34M lactating dairy cows in the US weighing ~1,300lb each eating ~100lbs feed/day + drinking ~35 gallons water/day cheaper than growing crops of oats?

Time for a 🧵 of context 1/

https://twitter.com/TamarHaspel/status/1527625564730937345

This simple Twitter poll is a great example of the impact Big Dairy lobbying and propaganda has on misguiding consumers.

In 2021, Big Dairy spent $6.9M in lobbying. The highest spent in 2013 at $8.3M.

There is no Big Oats. 2/

opensecrets.org/industries/ind…

There are 2 USDA checkoff programs dedicated to dairy + milk.

Fluid Milk Checkoff Program: ams.usda.gov/rules-regulati…

Dairy Checkoff Program. Remember "Got Milk" campaign?
ams.usda.gov/rules-regulati…

There is no Oat Board nor even a general US Grains Board. No checkoff for oats. 3/

Got Big Dairy socialism. From a 2018 report (p 7-8) in 2015 US dairy got ~$22.2B in direct + indirect subsidies equiv to ~73% of revenue from the marketplace that year. It includes subsidized irrigation water, nutrition programs and govt loan programs. 4/

realagriculture.com/2018/02/u-s-da…

Example, in VT 482 dairy farms got an extra $23M in subsidies through a fed program in 2022.

Because of a change in cattle feed cost calculations, VT farmers will also be eligible for an additional $3.1M in retroactive payments for 2020 and 2021. 5/

vtdigger.org/2021/12/12/sma…

In case you're curious, the US produced 65.4M bushels of oats in 2020, up 12.1M bushels from 2019.

SD and MN produced nearly 33% of total US oat production.

These oat producers do not get anywhere near the level of subsidies Big Dairy does. 6/

beef2live.com/story-states-p…

US dairy stays afloat in part because of massive govt dairy purchases which also impacts dairy prices.

Here's 2021 Sales of Total Fluid Milk Products in Federal Milk Orders. All orders combined totaled 40.1 million pounds. (rest of charts are pg 6-7) 7/
ams.usda.gov/sites/default/…

Most US milk is marketed through FMMOs (Federal Milk Marketing Orders) or similar state programs.

There's no FOMOs for oats. (got jokes :)

Also did you know there's a Dairy Revenue Protection Program ensuring protection against decline in revenue? 8/
ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-…

Since there isn't any Big Oats to get their 💰 of govt subsidies like dairy, @oatly which is the brand of oat milk Starbucks uses, created a pilot grant program to incentivize corn farmers to grow oats as cover crops by promising purchase from them. 9/

greenbiz.com/article/oatly-…

Got climate action. Let's look at the carbon footprint of cow milk compared to oat milk. Oat milk is far less in emissions for 250ml or an 8.5 oz amount which is about a Starbucks Short drink size. 10/

co2everything.com/co2e-of/oat-mi…

In quick summary, oat milk requires 1,000 fewer gallons of water to make per gallon, emits 3X less greenhouse gases, isn't the leading cause of deforestation like cattle is and doesn't require millions of animals to be slaughtered in the process. 11/

treehugger.com/oat-milk-vs-co…

For #climateaction, Starbucks has ambitious plans to becoming resource positive.

They should do a methane emissions assessment like Upfield who found 63% of their methane emissions is from dairy. 12/

https://twitter.com/upfieldglobal/status/1508718384996835329

starbucks.com/responsibility…

.@bluebottleroast coffee chain made a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2024 which included offering oat milk as the default instead of dairy at no extra charge. It's going well.

Big Dairy is cringing at the thought of this becoming a trend. 13/

blog.bluebottlecoffee.com/posts/oat-milk…

Actor + activist @jamesocromwell penned this compelling op-ed with good points about why he recently protested the Starbucks upcharge of plant-based milks. It costs Starbucks a few pennies extra to use plant-based milk but charges 10X the cost or more. 14/
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…

In support of sustainability, Starbucks UK + France have dropped the #plantbased milk upcharge.

UK: vegnews.com/2021/12/starbu…

France: instagram.com/p/CbXp920jE8V/…

Great to see regional Starbucks make the move to make plant-based milks free of upcharge. Time for the US to follow! 15/