Not just transport but all processes in the supply chain after the food leaves the farm — processing, transport, retail, and packaging — mostly account for a small share of emissions.

This data shows this is the case when we look at individual food products. However, studies also show that this holds true for actual diets; for example, researchers Vilma Sandström and colleagues studied the footprint of diets across the EU. Food transport accounted for only 6% of emissions, whilst dairy, meat, and eggs accounted for 83%.

https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

Factory farming is very much a global problem that’s not limited to the US

We estimate that over 90% of farmed animals globally are living in factory farms at present. This includes an estimated 74% of farmed land animals (vertebrates only) and virtually all farmed fish.[1]

https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/global-animal-farming-estimates

It’s not just more people that’s caused factory farming. It’s increase per capita consumption. The rates of per capita consumption are enormously different. If everyone ate like Americans, we would need 137% of the world’s habitable land which includes forests, urban areas, arable and non-arable land, etc. Cutting down every forest wouldn’t even be enough

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-global-habitable-land-needed-for-agriculture-if-everyone-had-the-diet-of

There are perceptional reasons why it may feel like milk worked better such as it being cooled vs using room temperature water. Or from being the second thing used. Or from various different factors

But the research above suggests it doesn’t do as much as people think it does

The infection risks are not the same. Milk has stuff in it that microbes like for growing where water doesn’t have nearly all that. Other stuff can enter inside. The eye infection pathway is concerning especially right now when bird flu seems to enter that way and is in large quatities of dairy milk. Not all pasturization methods are certain to actually remove it (i.e flash pasturization might not)

Edit: A minor point to clarify, capsaicin is in pepper spray but not tear gas. They often do get conflated but they are different

Note: When they say animal they’re probably using the arguably misleading metric of direct emissions from the creatures themselves. The emissions from animal agriculture include a good chunk from the deforestation and growing of feed for it which would be tied to multiple categories here

Only if they consent :3

(but also probably not great in terms of infection risk either)

That’s what people claim, but the research on it suggests it does not do any better for tear gas or pepper spray. Here’s one study looking at pepper spray for instance:

In this study, there was no significant difference in pain relief provided by five different treatment regimens. [Water vs milk vs 3 other solutions] Time after exposure appeared to be the best predictor for decrease in pain.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18924005/

EDIT: Also worth noting that in terms of infection risk, bird flu is now in a large number of dairy samples and it appears like it transmit to humans through the eyes in particular (or at least be one of its transmission pathways).

The workers were most likely exposed to the virus in contaminated milk—by getting it on their hands and then touching their eyes

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-bird-flu-is-causing-eye-infections-in-dairy-workers/

Some types of pasteurization (flash pasteurization) might not fully get rid of all of the virus. So for even just bird flu alone, its likely more of a risk than it probably was in the past

I would think that alcohol on the eyes wouldn’t do too many good things to them, however

One of the studied things was using antacids in that pepper spray study and didn’t find much benfit for it for pepper spray. There currently doesn’t really seem to much that research confirm works any better than any other liquid over the eyes

From what I’ve been told, it takes large amounts of any fluid to get it to go away. One difference you may have observed with milk was that it was cooled vs room temperature water. Cooled water can have similar effects compared to cool milk

Or the time factor itself since it was the second thing used

Don’t use dairy milk for tear gas. Comes with infection risks. Water or saline is generally recommended instead. Plant-milks might be ok (but I’m not 100% sure)

That means bacteria can contaminate the milk and potentially cause infection if applied to eyes or skin wounds. Jordt says it’s better to use water or saline solutions to wash out eyes after a tear-gas attack.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marlamilling/2020/07/21/the-risks-of-using-milk-to-soothe-tear-gassed-eyes-an-expert-says-use-water-instead/

EDIT: accidentally pasted the wrong link earlier somehow, fixed now

Never is a strong word when that’s just not true

An animal model of spontaneous exclusive homosexuality has however been described in sheep. About 8% of the males in a population studied in the western United States were shown to mate exclusively with other males, even when the choice was given between a male or female partner (Perkins and Roselli, 2007; Roselli et al., 2011b).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7484171/

https://archive.is/92uXd

Even if you replaced it 100% with exports, then domestic demand falls elsewhere in the world from decreased domestic consumption in the country you’re exporting to

Breeding fewer cows is going to have to entail reductions in consumption. Less supply in not all that much time. As a society, we’re not going to be able to do both at the same time

In anything more than the extreme short term, the number of creatures being breed ties directly to the demand. They aren’t just breesing them because they feel like it. For instance the US beef herd size has been falling due to the decrease in beef demand year over year

In most species, bird flu is both highly infectious and very deadly. A disease being very infectious can make up for its lethality

The method of mass killing are quite brutal too. In the last outbreaks, primarily these were the two primary methods:

Ventilation shutdown (VSD) is a means to kill livestock by suffocation and heat stroke in which airways to the building in which the livestock are kept are cut off. It is used for mass killing — usually to prevent the spread of diseases such as avian influenza. Animal rights organizations have called the practice unethical. The addition of carbon dioxide or additional heat to the enclosure is known as ventilation shutdown plus (VSD+).[1][2][3][4][5]

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

Foam depopulation or foaming is a means of mass killing farm animals by spraying foam over a large area to obstruct breathing and ultimately cause suffocation.[1] It is usually used to attempt to stop disease spread.[2] Foaming has also been used to kill farm animals after backlogs in slaughtering occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] Foam depopulation has been used on poultry and pigs and has seen initial research for use on cattle.[4] It has faced criticism from some groups. Some veterinarians have called it inhumane,[5] along with many animal rights and animal welfare organizations who cite the pain caused by suffocation or the harm experienced by the stray survivors.[6][7]

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

The manuare being concentrated like that makes its runoff a real problem. That leads to fish kills in a waterways and such

There already is that. Besides just plant milks, you can also get non-animal whey milk

https://perfectday.com/made-with-perfect-day/

If you haven’t, give oatmilk-based ice creams a try. They’re pretty good imo