Why Amul’s disregard for PETA India’s vegan milk request is short-sighted

Representative image: Reuters

PETA India recently sent a letter to Amul urging it to produce vegan (plant-based) milk and letting the company know about the lucrative opportunity provided by the growing vegan food market. Writing about this in his opinion piece PETA’s Advice to Amul Is Misguided and Unfair, Sundeep Khanna acknowledges that “some aspects of the dairy industry are in fact violent and exploitative”, but he insists that dairy farming must continue for the sake of farmers, economics, and consumer choice. Khanna is missing the big picture.

Jim Mellon, billionaire investor, and author of ‘Moo’s Law: An Investor’s Guide to the New Agrarian Revolution’, is of the view that in the next decade, dairy products as we currently know them will be gone, because “it’s an industry that’s in terminal decline”. Among other factors, a major reason for this is the growing popularity of vegan milks made from nuts, soya, oats, and many other plants.

Food scientists are also using novel processes to create milk from cells and other means rather than by farming animals, overcoming inherent problems often associated with it, such as disease, pollution, and slaughter. Lab-made milks overcome this problem and are already being produced.

Mellon also believes that in the next decade “half of the world’s meat will be plant-based” or derived from “cell-based agriculture where the meat is produced in laboratories”. In India, the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), along with the National Research Centre on Meat (NCRM), are among those working to develop lab-grown meat.

Today, one cannot ignore the environmental and health impacts of the meat, egg, and dairy industries, and there are many exposés on animal farming that it is hard to turn a blind eye to it.

Zoonotic diseases, which originate in animals, are rising at a rapid rate — with three to four new such diseases emerging every year. Among what’s changed is how we treat animals — today, over 70 percent of animals used for meat, egg and dairy production are factory-farmed, and unsanitary live animal meat markets continue to thrive around the world. As the FAIRR Initiative, a UK-based collaborative investor network, explains, “The very environment of factory farming inherently creates the ideal conditions for disease. Cramming large numbers of animals into confined spaces with poor sanitation generates a hotbed for harmful pathogens.”

Another concern regarding farming animals is the wide use of antibiotics on farmed animals. The World Health Organization warns, “Over-use and misuse of antibiotics in animals and humans is contributing to the rising threat of antibiotic resistance.”

As for environmental concerns, especially about drought and floods and the impact on future generations, a United Nations report, issued more than a decade ago, stated that a worldwide move towards vegan eating is necessary to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst effects of climate change. A study by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology concluded that methane produced by India’s livestock could significantly raise global temperatures, especially because India has the largest population of cattle in the world.

Amul’s kneejerk reaction to dismiss PETA India’s recommendation — without considering (at least publicly) introducing even one plant-based milk into its product portfolio — is unfortunate. Sensing a growing market and thinking ahead, many major dairy businesses are stepping in with plant-based drinks and foods.

Today, there are many varieties of plant-based milk and meat available in India – and vegan egg products, too. Currently their market size might be small, but it is only a matter of time before becomes noticeably big. In the United Kingdom, vegan milks have become so profitable and popular, one media outlet called them ‘white gold’. Indian farmers and businesses won’t want to miss out on that market share.

If Amul fails to look to the future – no matter how successful the brand may seem now – it will struggle to sustain its performance. There is a way out: diversify into plant-based products.

 Kiran Ahuja is PETA India’s Vegan Outreach Coordinator.

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.