Disagree. This startup is using genetically engineered yeast to produce milk proteins which can be used to form things that are exactly like milk: http://www.perfectdayfoods.com/ They're launching soon.

This is awesome! More alternatives the better!

There are some frontiers where vegan replacements aren't particularly tasty to me (vegan cheese for example, at least in its cold form).

But as for almond milk and soy milk and coconut milk, their taste, to me, is clearly superior to cow's milk.

Vegan cheese may never have the variety and taste, but that’s something I decided I can accept.

That said, there have been improvements and more awesome brands appearing every year! Check out miyoko’s cheeses and butter!

https://miyokoskitchen.com

I’ll second Miyoko. My wife’s vegan and I mostly can’t stand vegan cheese but that one is pretty good as a spread on crackers.

Awesome :) I think I've tried "Go Veggie!" and "Daiya" brands from the super market. If you melt the Go Veggie brand into vegetable chili and then put that on top of some baked pita chips, you are in for an enjoyable meal ^.^

Just FYI, Go Veggie isn't vegan or dairy free (at least last time I checked), it's lactose free.

Also, Daiya isn't the state of the art by a long shot. If you're adventurous and have a large grocery budget, Chao (served cold) is the most cheese-like cheeze that I've had so far.

I try to mix it up a bit with my vegan milks. Right now I am using Oatly milk. I love the coconut-almond blends, and try to stay away from soy milk, since I eat a lot of soy in different products already.

I use soy milk for cereal, but no non-dairy milk works for me in tea, yet.

There's something about the acidity of coffee and tea that makes most veggie milks curdle; the result tastes something like cardboard. There were some soy-based (So Good or So Nice branded) coffee creamers that my first-year residence cafeteria offered years ago which stood up nicely in coffee, but I haven't seen them for sale since.

I’ve never had problems with almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, or soy milk not being able to stand up to coffee, which usually has a lot more acidity than tea.

For me, it’s been more about the taste of the non-bovine milk itself. And almond milk is by far the best thing I’ve found so far. I also like when it is mixed with other non-bovine milks, like cashew and coconut.

If you use cold-brewed coffee, that has a lot less acidity than hot-brewed coffee. So, it works even better with non-bovine milks.

Shouldn't it be possible to give the calf all the milk until it's old enough to wean, but keep milking the mother. I think that's what they used to do in the days of sustenance farming.

Of course, if the calf was a boy they would slaughter it about then. But that's another discussion entirely.

The farmer in the article does it that way. Cows produce the most milk right after birth. Then they reduce the production, because the calve starts eating on its own.

I think keeping the calves with the mothers is the smallest part of the problem. The premature slaughter of cows and the slaughter of male calves and "surplus" female calves is the bigger issue for me.

Apparently the cows now produce way more milk per day than the calf needs. The wikipedia also says calves grow a lot faster when kept with their mother.

This is still a step in the direction of being more humane, and should not be underestimated.

Agreed. I neglected to add that this means they are really going after a small and ephemeral niche: those who want to spend more for more humane milk but still drink cows milk. Many people in that position may find themselves adopting a plant based diet.

Consumer behavior can change. With good marketing, it seems plausible that humane meat and dairy could become a big market, way bigger than veganism.

That's something we need to be aware of and do everything we can to prevent. Humane animal products are even more unsustainable than stomach-turningly efficient animal products. The world population continues to shift toward a meat-filled American diet, and it would be catastrophic to meet the whole world's demand with old-fashioned farms where animals have outdoor space to roam and aren't loaded up with steroids and antibiotics, let alone the ecological costs of keeping the useless males alive.

That is a problem that classical economics trivially solves - humane meat is already unaffordable for most people.

How do milk producing organs work? Could they work outside a body?

With the adavances of lab grown meat, I’d bet they could.

Makes ya think though doesn’t it? There could be a time when humans are drinking lab produced cows milk from an artificial organ. And people call us vegans extreme ;)

Look at this startup! http://www.perfectdayfoods.com/

I really long for the day where we can grow in the lab the stuff we currently harm animals for, but a big "if" will be whether we can replicate the nutritional profile. A lot of vegan-friendly food I find is bulked up with carbohydrates and/or soy protein.

Nutritionally, "vegan" milk is almost as good or even better than cow's milk in some regards.

The more important issue is taste and certain chemical/technological properties, which we need in other dairy products

That's a very valid concern. For our space faring successors though, this would perhaps be the most important breakthrough.

Going off on a tangent here but If you could replicate earth-obtained food in space, it would probably make me much more amenable to the idea of shooting out into the void and living my whole life there.

Much of the milk isn't produced in the udder, but transported through the blood.

But there is also a whole lot of immune tissue and hormonal regulation going on. I doubt that the way towards "cow less cow's milk" will go through ex-vivo mammaries.

Maybe hormones?

Hmmm maybe, or maybe lab grown/produced?

Yup :) http://www.perfectdayfoods.com/