The UK government is apparently considering a push to replace "fresh" milk on UK supermarket shelves with UHT (long-life) products instead. The major push behind this is "to reduce the amount of carbon emissions caused by refrigerated milk".
This is a good first step, but it misses some very important points. Probably the greatest of these is that the impact on climate change from cattle themselves is a far greater problem than the electricity needed to refrigerate milk. Cows emit considerable quantities of methane on a daily basis, which is a problem that this move fails to address in any way.
Given that there are no valid nutritional arguments for consuming milk as an essential part of our diet, why not just ditch it altogether, and have a far more positive environmental impact than merely switching to UHT milk? We consume milk because we've been raised to accept it as normal, not because we actually need it. Besides, what is normal about consuming the breast milk of another species anyway?
Switching to UHT milk to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a bit like emptying a bath using a teaspoon. Wouldn't it make more sense to just pull the plug instead?
Here's the news story, if you're interested:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22588489-13762,00.html
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