Soy, organic soy and its use in animal feeds is something I think about ALL the time. We work with a local organic farmer who grows the grain for our pigs and have worked with him to develop a feed mix that doesn't include soy. This is actually surprisingly hard to do and still have a high enough protein content but it is possible to replace soy with cow peas, field peas, sorghum etc. It's a tiny movement but over the past decade I've noticed more and more farmers attempting to switch to a non soy based feed for their animals. Soy is cheap and subsidized so this is difficult to do while still keeping prices down. And don't even get me started on the skyrocketing prices of grain & animal feed post-Covid 😵💫🫠
Thank you for pointing out the high nutritional value of soy milk. I've always wondered why in the frenzy of almond milk (such an environmental NO) and oat milk (for me, a gut ecosystem NO), people weren't discussing the relatively high protein content of soymilk. For a while, I felt like soy milk was the dowdy old aunt who was included in the plant-milk party out of obligation. Now maybe people will start to realize she's pretty awesome.
Milk fashion is so interesting. I used to get soy milk lattes in college because I couldn’t digest milk. When I went vegan, almond milk was cool, so I went along with it, then I was like “uhhh there are issues!” Then we went along with oat. Meanwhile soy was always the answer! (And I use coconut as a heavy cream substitute when I want its flavor)
It’s like how all of a sudden all vegan cheese was cashew based despite human rights concerns… most nuts should really be used sparingly and thoughtfully, but that’s not what the market can abide…
This is a fantastic essay. One of my key WTF takeaways from your book was thinking why is soy not a part of the American diet by now as a source of protein?! We could produce and consume less (and more responsible) meat and dairy if we just grew a percentage of soy as food for people. It’s frustrating how much influence the lobbies and checkoffs have to promote conventional animal proteins.
Thanks so much for reading this and really getting the crux of my book! It’s mind-boggling that we use so much land for livestock feed and most people aren’t aware it’s just serving this big appetite for meat and dairy that’s so destructive.
Here in Italy I love seeing plant milks made from local historical grains like spelt. I've even seen Fava bean milk. I just like soy. It blends well with coffee and I make sure to buy sugar free and oil free.
Just thinking about animal milks makes me have diarrhea. I used to drink Oat milk because it is less water intensive, but my gastrointerologist got me back on soy because it is higher in protein, which is good for people like me. I love tofu and tempeh, and it is easy to find locally made stuff here in Italy.
Thank you for this!! This whole conversation gets even weirder in pediatrician's offices, especially when you have (had) a one-year-old or a toddler who was close to a failure-to-thrive diagnosis for being underweight. So many doctors just shoved "whole milk" in our faces as a solution to our child's former, complex feeding issues .. and he's never even liked the taste, never mind that it was never a substitute for learning how to develop a palate for a variety of foods that delivered nutrients, minerals, and proteins in a variety of ways. Appreciate this essay a lot.
Ah, that is such an interesting and wildly frustrating spin on it, too. The notion of cow’s milk as necessary seems ingrained in the national consciousness to the extent that it can’t be done away with even with all these recurring issues… for me, I can look back on my not wanting cow milk (except in cereal where it was more there to just wet the flavored grains lol) as a way of protecting myself from sickness. But despite the prevalence of lactose intolerance, it’s regarded as an anomaly. Meanwhile soy is right there!
I love how you're going after the aesthetics of all this dairy stuff. Like I love a good dairy butter, but every time I see a slow motion butter curler video or whatever it's like WHY are we playing into all of this.
RIGHT?! Hahaha. I think it’s because I came to veganism only when I understood it could be as delicious and beautiful as being an omnivore. This is the mindset I understand well! Precious little aesthete 🤣
I'm someone whose body and taste buds adore plain old cow milk. But I stand by soy milk as my substitute of choice. Luckily, Phoenix Bean/Jenny's Tofu is within walking distance of me. In addition to their delicious tofu, they make fresh soy milk from organic soybeans grown responsibly here in Illinois. Fresh, local, unsweetened soy milk is a treasure. (Especially because I know I'm too lazy to make it at home.)
I think the constant debut of "new" plant milks over the past 10 years or so enabled the trendification of milks. Oat milk was so hot when Oatly developed their barista formula. Almond milk and the coconut formulas had their moments. Silk's reformulation helped soy cappuccinos compete with dairy before that. Hopefully now that we have a suite of milks available it settles down and we don't have to have trends and backlashes over fing millk!
"Hopefully now that we have a suite of milks available it settles down and we don't have to have trends and backlashes over fing millk!" YES! Agree so wholeheartedly. I'm troubled mostly by the faddish conversation of "oh, oat milk is over, back to cow"—ugggh!
I use soy milk because it properly froths and because it makes a high protein yogurt 😊 I find it interesting we've been taught the term "lactose intolerant" as something some people have (and is therefore marginalized), yet most of the world's population does not drink animal milk past weaning. It makes me wonder if lactose intolerant is the standard, and those peoples who lived in cold, northern climes with limited/seasonal plant food developed a gene to tolerate lactose, not the other way around, you know?
Yes, I’ve written about this before! It’s only considered “intolerance” because it goes against a Northern European standard. It’s absolutely the norm not to digest animal milks. Endlessly interesting to consider how these “norms” are constructed.
I get soymilk from Hodo at our Farmer's market and make it a couple times a week in the morning before work, it's that easy! Just give yourself fifteen minutes to scrub everything down. The whey can be used for cleaning to save water.
This essay really touched on a lot of things I'm thinking about right now, thank you. We use oat milk for our drinking chocolate but are always trying new plant milks. I like raw Jersey cows milk (from another of my farmer's markets) in my coffee but I'm taking it black more and more 😬
My favorite thing about soy milk is...tofu! Fresh tofu is so easy to make, satisfying, and versatile. Clean up is the hardest part and must be done immediately and thoroughly. Protein is sticky.
A hot tip that I think I got from Andrea Nguyen's book if I'm not mistaken is that citric acid cleans up soymilk/tofu messes like nothing else! It really works. I just get powdered citric acid at the health food store and sprinkle some in the soy milk pot with some water, wait a bit, then scrub! Miracle. I reckon you could use raw lemon juice in a pinch. Vinegar doesn't cut through it the same way for some reason.
It's great if you have hard water. I do a cycle of citric acid in my washing machine every ten washes. And also my moka because we have a lot of calcium in our water.
I'm newly a fan too. Anything like buttercream/baked goods where you want the acidity without added liquid... I was using b&b sumac for this, obv it's own amazing thing, but nice to have a cheaper option and one that's tested for shelf stability. And so much cheaper than King Arthur lemon powder haha.
I’m another one of these people whose bod handles dairy milk better than the alternatives, though Minor Figures was my go to for many of the last few years.
What I really came here to say, though, is that if you can ever get your hands on some Vermont Soy milk — holy shit that stuff is amazing. It was stocked in my college dining hall, and I don’t think I touched the dairy milk dispensers the whole time I was there. It’s so good. It’s co-founded by a guy who grew up on a dairy farm, too.
I think they also make some kind of wood floor finish with some biproduct? Or maybe used to?
I’ve been meaning to try Ota Tofu’s new soy milk back home in Portland — this might be the kick in the butt I need.
Oh I can’t do a straight up glass of milk, either!!! I’ve never liked it that much. I’m mostly devoted to my milky coffee drinks (cortado, please!), or things that are mostly milk like ice cream. Vermont Soy might be the only milk I’ve ever drank by the glass.
Great great essay! I always (only half jokingly) chant "Soy milk 'till I die!" as I pour it into my tea.
I wonder if there is not a similar discussion to be had around plant milks like the ones about tech meats in your book. From my understanding, many folks sort of regressively and loudly turning away from plant milks claim it is because of the rise in multi-ingredient plant milks that are understood in that context as highly processed and lab created. Soy milk of course is my solution to not always wanting multi ingredient barista blends, but it seems to have been thrown out with the rest of them.
Yes, it’s very interesting and I’ll admit my anti-milk bias (aka lactose intolerance lol) has had me not considering it all as deeply as I should be—making up for it now! But it’s definitely about the way these milks are stabilized, but a lot of the stabilization is likely from the understanding that they should be mimicking dairy as best as possible.
Housemade “mylks” have always enticed me but it seems they’ve gone out of fashion. A cafe that serves its own housemade soy milk would get my money!
i went through a extra creamy oat milk thing for over a year, then i met a couple who have a small ranch near our canyon home and raise goats (amongst lots of other animals) and have fresh goat milk for me every weekend, which is spectacular and froths up so well for my morning tea lattes… but soy milk, i think it froths up nicely too, so soy tea lattes 🫖
Soy, organic soy and its use in animal feeds is something I think about ALL the time. We work with a local organic farmer who grows the grain for our pigs and have worked with him to develop a feed mix that doesn't include soy. This is actually surprisingly hard to do and still have a high enough protein content but it is possible to replace soy with cow peas, field peas, sorghum etc. It's a tiny movement but over the past decade I've noticed more and more farmers attempting to switch to a non soy based feed for their animals. Soy is cheap and subsidized so this is difficult to do while still keeping prices down. And don't even get me started on the skyrocketing prices of grain & animal feed post-Covid 😵💫🫠
This is SO INTERESTING!
Thank you for pointing out the high nutritional value of soy milk. I've always wondered why in the frenzy of almond milk (such an environmental NO) and oat milk (for me, a gut ecosystem NO), people weren't discussing the relatively high protein content of soymilk. For a while, I felt like soy milk was the dowdy old aunt who was included in the plant-milk party out of obligation. Now maybe people will start to realize she's pretty awesome.
Milk fashion is so interesting. I used to get soy milk lattes in college because I couldn’t digest milk. When I went vegan, almond milk was cool, so I went along with it, then I was like “uhhh there are issues!” Then we went along with oat. Meanwhile soy was always the answer! (And I use coconut as a heavy cream substitute when I want its flavor)
It’s like how all of a sudden all vegan cheese was cashew based despite human rights concerns… most nuts should really be used sparingly and thoughtfully, but that’s not what the market can abide…
Soy milk forever!!
This is a fantastic essay. One of my key WTF takeaways from your book was thinking why is soy not a part of the American diet by now as a source of protein?! We could produce and consume less (and more responsible) meat and dairy if we just grew a percentage of soy as food for people. It’s frustrating how much influence the lobbies and checkoffs have to promote conventional animal proteins.
Thanks so much for reading this and really getting the crux of my book! It’s mind-boggling that we use so much land for livestock feed and most people aren’t aware it’s just serving this big appetite for meat and dairy that’s so destructive.
Here in Italy I love seeing plant milks made from local historical grains like spelt. I've even seen Fava bean milk. I just like soy. It blends well with coffee and I make sure to buy sugar free and oil free.
Just thinking about animal milks makes me have diarrhea. I used to drink Oat milk because it is less water intensive, but my gastrointerologist got me back on soy because it is higher in protein, which is good for people like me. I love tofu and tempeh, and it is easy to find locally made stuff here in Italy.
So interesting! I wish it were easy here to get good tofu and tempeh—but I make do!
Thank you for this!! This whole conversation gets even weirder in pediatrician's offices, especially when you have (had) a one-year-old or a toddler who was close to a failure-to-thrive diagnosis for being underweight. So many doctors just shoved "whole milk" in our faces as a solution to our child's former, complex feeding issues .. and he's never even liked the taste, never mind that it was never a substitute for learning how to develop a palate for a variety of foods that delivered nutrients, minerals, and proteins in a variety of ways. Appreciate this essay a lot.
Ah, that is such an interesting and wildly frustrating spin on it, too. The notion of cow’s milk as necessary seems ingrained in the national consciousness to the extent that it can’t be done away with even with all these recurring issues… for me, I can look back on my not wanting cow milk (except in cereal where it was more there to just wet the flavored grains lol) as a way of protecting myself from sickness. But despite the prevalence of lactose intolerance, it’s regarded as an anomaly. Meanwhile soy is right there!
I love how you're going after the aesthetics of all this dairy stuff. Like I love a good dairy butter, but every time I see a slow motion butter curler video or whatever it's like WHY are we playing into all of this.
RIGHT?! Hahaha. I think it’s because I came to veganism only when I understood it could be as delicious and beautiful as being an omnivore. This is the mindset I understand well! Precious little aesthete 🤣
I'm someone whose body and taste buds adore plain old cow milk. But I stand by soy milk as my substitute of choice. Luckily, Phoenix Bean/Jenny's Tofu is within walking distance of me. In addition to their delicious tofu, they make fresh soy milk from organic soybeans grown responsibly here in Illinois. Fresh, local, unsweetened soy milk is a treasure. (Especially because I know I'm too lazy to make it at home.)
I am so wildly jealous of you!!!
I think the constant debut of "new" plant milks over the past 10 years or so enabled the trendification of milks. Oat milk was so hot when Oatly developed their barista formula. Almond milk and the coconut formulas had their moments. Silk's reformulation helped soy cappuccinos compete with dairy before that. Hopefully now that we have a suite of milks available it settles down and we don't have to have trends and backlashes over fing millk!
"Hopefully now that we have a suite of milks available it settles down and we don't have to have trends and backlashes over fing millk!" YES! Agree so wholeheartedly. I'm troubled mostly by the faddish conversation of "oh, oat milk is over, back to cow"—ugggh!
I use soy milk because it properly froths and because it makes a high protein yogurt 😊 I find it interesting we've been taught the term "lactose intolerant" as something some people have (and is therefore marginalized), yet most of the world's population does not drink animal milk past weaning. It makes me wonder if lactose intolerant is the standard, and those peoples who lived in cold, northern climes with limited/seasonal plant food developed a gene to tolerate lactose, not the other way around, you know?
Yes, I’ve written about this before! It’s only considered “intolerance” because it goes against a Northern European standard. It’s absolutely the norm not to digest animal milks. Endlessly interesting to consider how these “norms” are constructed.
Yes, constructed and repeated until they seem to be invisible "fact."
I get soymilk from Hodo at our Farmer's market and make it a couple times a week in the morning before work, it's that easy! Just give yourself fifteen minutes to scrub everything down. The whey can be used for cleaning to save water.
This essay really touched on a lot of things I'm thinking about right now, thank you. We use oat milk for our drinking chocolate but are always trying new plant milks. I like raw Jersey cows milk (from another of my farmer's markets) in my coffee but I'm taking it black more and more 😬
We don't get very good soy milk here in Puerto Rico, so I'd have to order the beans, make the milk, and then make the tofu! We'll see!
I'm glad it touched a nerve—I also enjoy some local cow and goat dairy in small amounts! All about the diversity.
My favorite thing about soy milk is...tofu! Fresh tofu is so easy to make, satisfying, and versatile. Clean up is the hardest part and must be done immediately and thoroughly. Protein is sticky.
One day I'll give it a go—but considering the stickiness, I know I'll need to be in a serene headspace for that activity 🤣
A hot tip that I think I got from Andrea Nguyen's book if I'm not mistaken is that citric acid cleans up soymilk/tofu messes like nothing else! It really works. I just get powdered citric acid at the health food store and sprinkle some in the soy milk pot with some water, wait a bit, then scrub! Miracle. I reckon you could use raw lemon juice in a pinch. Vinegar doesn't cut through it the same way for some reason.
I guess I'm going to have to get citric acid now that it can do more than just make pate de fruits! (I'm still probably not going to make tofu lol)
It's great if you have hard water. I do a cycle of citric acid in my washing machine every ten washes. And also my moka because we have a lot of calcium in our water.
So interesting! I didn’t realize citric acid was so versatile.
I'm newly a fan too. Anything like buttercream/baked goods where you want the acidity without added liquid... I was using b&b sumac for this, obv it's own amazing thing, but nice to have a cheaper option and one that's tested for shelf stability. And so much cheaper than King Arthur lemon powder haha.
I find it awesome to have on hand tbh, I add a little to fruity cupcake icings, sorbets, cocktail syrups...it's handy for lots of fruity things.
L'été de pate de fruits!
Thank you! Can't wait to give it a try
I’m another one of these people whose bod handles dairy milk better than the alternatives, though Minor Figures was my go to for many of the last few years.
What I really came here to say, though, is that if you can ever get your hands on some Vermont Soy milk — holy shit that stuff is amazing. It was stocked in my college dining hall, and I don’t think I touched the dairy milk dispensers the whole time I was there. It’s so good. It’s co-founded by a guy who grew up on a dairy farm, too.
I think they also make some kind of wood floor finish with some biproduct? Or maybe used to?
I’ve been meaning to try Ota Tofu’s new soy milk back home in Portland — this might be the kick in the butt I need.
I will go looking while I’m in New York soon! I still don’t think I can deal psychologically with a straight-up glass of milk 🤣 but I can taste!
Oh I can’t do a straight up glass of milk, either!!! I’ve never liked it that much. I’m mostly devoted to my milky coffee drinks (cortado, please!), or things that are mostly milk like ice cream. Vermont Soy might be the only milk I’ve ever drank by the glass.
Great great essay! I always (only half jokingly) chant "Soy milk 'till I die!" as I pour it into my tea.
I wonder if there is not a similar discussion to be had around plant milks like the ones about tech meats in your book. From my understanding, many folks sort of regressively and loudly turning away from plant milks claim it is because of the rise in multi-ingredient plant milks that are understood in that context as highly processed and lab created. Soy milk of course is my solution to not always wanting multi ingredient barista blends, but it seems to have been thrown out with the rest of them.
Yes, it’s very interesting and I’ll admit my anti-milk bias (aka lactose intolerance lol) has had me not considering it all as deeply as I should be—making up for it now! But it’s definitely about the way these milks are stabilized, but a lot of the stabilization is likely from the understanding that they should be mimicking dairy as best as possible.
Housemade “mylks” have always enticed me but it seems they’ve gone out of fashion. A cafe that serves its own housemade soy milk would get my money!
you’ve inspired me to try soy milk again :)
i went through a extra creamy oat milk thing for over a year, then i met a couple who have a small ranch near our canyon home and raise goats (amongst lots of other animals) and have fresh goat milk for me every weekend, which is spectacular and froths up so well for my morning tea lattes… but soy milk, i think it froths up nicely too, so soy tea lattes 🫖
I love goat cheese but I can’t get myself into the milk (see above issues with milk as such 😂)—maybe one day! Goats do so well in so many climates.
Our goat farmer, Anitra (she’s Swedish, her husband John is from north Jersey, like me) also gives me some cheese to try, and it is SO good