You’ve had milk from cows, you probably tried soy milk and almond milk, but now there’s a new alternative to cow squeezins, derived from a surprising plant, peas. Ripple Foods of Emeryville, California is about to roll out their pea milk nationally.

Pea milk has the same amount of protein as milk from cows and eight times the protein of almond milk. It also has 50% more calcium than dairy milk and half the sugar.

"The primary challenge is one of flavor," even a co-founder says "it tastes terrible." But they do claim to have the technology that fixes the flavor and that "It's creamy, sweet, and tastes nothing like peas," The yellow peas they use are high in fiber, low in fat and cholesterol free. It also has a smaller carbon footprint than dairy or almond milk when it comes to reducing greenhouse gases.

Metro says:

“Dairy has a massive carbon footprint, with a single litre of milk taking 1,000 litres of water to produce – Ripple’s pea milk takes 2.25 litres.

Climate-warming gases emitted by manure, feed production, milk processing and even cows burping are a concern.

A farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people.”

You can try it for yourself at Whole Foods stores “where upper-middle-class shoppers are willing to spend more for milk that is environmentally friendly” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. starting May 2. The Wall Street Journal has learned “Ripple Foods has picked up $13.6 million in Series A funding,”

Will this put Wyoming cows out of a job? What will be left for them to do, besides live for the ultimate sacrifice and wind up on the grill?

Wyoming has a proud history of cattle ranching and Wyoming dairy farming supports many families and they supply us with nutritious and delicious milk and milk products. I'll try the chocolate please. And can it make ice cream? I doubt it, but...

I love to support our own in Wyoming whenever possible but the new plant based alternatives could be a threat to those who live the farming, ranching and dairy lifestyle? Can we, will we adapt?

Hail the cow and listen to this

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