This industry is happy to let manure runoff into local ecosystems and lead to massive waterway pollution and toxic algae blooms. Biogas is no better with the tanks used for holding manure for biogas regularly leaking out and/or overflow

This is not an industry that is super concerned about fertilizer shortages and usage. Animal agriculture makes fertilizer demand increase and worsens the problem, even if manure was used 100% optimally

Thus, shifting from animal to plant sources of protein can substantially reduce fertilizer requirements, even with maximal use of animal manure

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344922006528

For an example of how large the fertilizer difference can be: Producing 1kg protein from beans uses 12x less fertilizer than doing the same from beef

To produce 1 kg of protein from kidney beans required approximately eighteen times less land, ten times less water, nine times less fuel, twelve times less fertilizer and ten times less pesticide in comparison to producing 1 kg of protein from beef

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25374332/

To clarify, this is being pitched by the beef and dairy industry. It’s certainly not a vegan solution and it does not work as well as the industry claims

The article subheader might give some hints

Environmental groups are suing one of the largest seafood companies in the country over alleged aquaculture pollution to the Columbia River.

We don’t have to make things up. The article says they are currently 40% plant-based

Things like this tend to grow very non-linearly. Slowly for a long time then speed up a lot more when the social norms around it start shifting

Oat milk truly does wonders (or any other plant milk that you happen to like)

Pockets of progress can still exist within broader repression. Based on your profile, I’m going to guess you’re from the US? If you want some hope:

US Senate Passes Bill Giving Children the Right to Plant-Based Milks in Public School Lunches and this ended up getting signed into law 9 days ago. It also overturned an 80 year old provision that prohibited plant-milks from being offered without special request from doctor/parent in K-12 school lunches. (Which I never would have thought would get overturned now of all times)

Clean energy is still booming in the U.S. despite Trump’s best efforts. Renewables still are going into place because they are just the cheapest option, and the Trump admin has had a lot of their attempts to target renewables paused in court for now. Not that it’s not impacting it at all (it obviously is), but that it isn’t enough to stop progress entirely

Minnesota’s Most Populous County Implements Plant-Based-By-Default Policy for Official Meetings and Events

NYC Set To Cut All Processed Meat In Schools, Hospitals, And Care Centers and is going to replace them with whole plant-based foods

I can keep going. There is a lot of focus in both traditional and social media about the bad news and very little about good news. But there are people trying and when people try you always have the chance to win

Don’t stop trying

That difference seems a lot higher than most of the world. Were you looking at price per unit volume or price per whatever the container was? I’d be really surprised if there’s a difference that high

There is also the option of making plant-milks yourself. Price can be a lot cheaper that way by orders of magnitude. (Though may take some experimentation to get good tasting recipes, so don’t necessarily judge off of the first taste)

The goal isn’t necessarily to change how people speak (though they would if they could), but more to make the product name on the stores shelves look less appealing to reduce sales

Those are primarily just using the same the packing as they due to places that prohibit using the term “milk”. The dairy industry has lobbied quite hard for those bans across the world at all levels of government. Under the belief that “oat drink” or the like sounds less appealing that “oat milk”

That’s been the term of choice in English for the past 800+ years

In English, the word “milk” has been used to refer to “milk-like plant juices” since 1200 CE.[11]

Plant milks go back much further than most people realize

Almond milk spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and was popular in parts of the Middle East. Recipes for almond milk in the Middle East date back to around the 13th century as it was mentioned in Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi’s cookbook Kitāb al-Ṭabīḫ (كتاب الطبيخ; The Book of Dishes), written in 1226. It was especially popular during Lent.[12][13][14][15] Soy was a plant milk used in China during the 14th century.[3][16] Soy milk use in China is first recorded in 1365.[17] In medieval England, almond milk was used in dishes such as ris alkere (a type of rice pudding)[18] and appears in the recipe collection The Forme of Cury.[19] Coconut milk (and coconut cream) are traditional ingredients in many cuisines such as in South and Southeast Asia, and are often used in curries.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_milk

Don’t worry there’s still plenty of selective breeding to make sure chickens grow fast at the expense of their health. Fast-growing chicken make up over ~95% of all globally farmed chicken (or higher depending on how you defined fast-growing)

This is part of a broader movement that has seen successes in a lot of places. From Wikipedia

Plant-Based Universities is an international student-led campaign calling for universities and Students’ Unions to adopt fully plant-based catering.[1][2] The campaign began in late 2021[3] in response to the climate crisis.[4] Its chapters have initiated votes in Students’ Unions and, as of October 2025, been successful in one Dutch, one Swedish, two Austrian, two Swiss, four German, and fourteen British universities, with around 80 active campaigns across nine countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant-Based_Universities

But still greatly misleading. Having impact doesn’t mean having equal impact. Plant-based foods all have dramatically lower impact than any animal-based foods. See some of my comments further up the chain

Not equally so

Transitioning to plant-based diets (PBDs) has the potential to reduce diet-related land use by 76%, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, eutrophication by 49%, and green and blue water use by 21% and 14%, respectively, whilst garnering substantial health co-benefits

[…]

Plant-based foods have a significantly smaller footprint on the environment than animal-based foods. Even the least sustainable vegetables and cereals cause less environmental harm than the lowest impact meat and dairy products [9].

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/html

Transitioning to plant-based diets (PBDs) has the potential to reduce diet-related land use by 76%, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, eutrophication by 49%, and green and blue water use by 21% and 14%, respectively, whilst garnering substantial health co-benefits

[…]

Plant-based foods have a significantly smaller footprint on the environment than animal-based foods. Even the least sustainable vegetables and cereals cause less environmental harm than the lowest impact meat and dairy products [9].

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/html